Stockhausen Festival
Elaine Chew
Stockhausen Festival - an experimental music festival in Spring term week 1
Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts
For further information and to book see www.attenboroughcentre.com
and https://www.facebook.com/events/1282126668521360/
Many events are free and all take place in the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts.
Monday 30 Jan at 7.30pm
Jonathan Harvey Tombeau de Messiaen
Karlheinz Stockhausen Mantra
Joseph Houston and Alex Wilson (two pianos and live electronics)
Pre-concert talk with the artists at 6.45pm free to ticket holders
A former Professor of Music at the University of Sussex, Jonathan Harvey wrote many large-scale works including operas and orchestral music. Harvey completed significant projects at IRCAM, the centre for electronic music in Paris; he wrote a book on Karlheinz Stockhausen, whose music was a strong influence. In ‘Tombeau de Messiaen’, Harvey explores the ‘colours of the harmonic series and its distortions’ in a work for solo piano and electronics that pays tribute to another great 20th century composer, Olivier Messiaen.
This concert also presents a rare opportunity to hear Mantra by Stockhausen. This composition was composed in 1970 for the Kontarsky brothers at Donaueschingen. It is scored for two ring-modulated pianos; each player has a chromatic set of crotales, a wood block and one player uses a recording of morse code.
Joseph Houston is a pianist based in London and Berlin. His wide-ranging curiosity has led to activity in a variety of fields, particularly in contemporary and experimental music. He has performed all over Europe and in China, and his playing has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, and Albanian national television.
Alex Wilson studied at York University and Andrew Ball at the Royal College of Music. As a concert pianist he has performed around the country, in venues including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Cadogan Hall, and has performed in France, Spain and at the Rachmaninov Hall, Moscow.
Tues 31 Jan at 1pm
Elaine Chew, solo piano with visualisation
Embracing the ‘found objects’ ethos embodied in Stockhausen’s Telemusik (1966), recent pieces by Elaine Chew, Peter Child, Lina Viste Grønli, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, and Dorien Herremans draw inspiration from the rhythms and a sight-reading of a Haydn Sonata movement. Jonathan Berger’s Intermezzo (2015), a UK premiere, was created for Pedja Muzijevic’s Haydn Dialogues.
Toccata in D major BWV 912 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Stolen Rhythm (2009) by Cheryl Frances-Hoad / Franz Josef Haydn
Practicing Haydn (2013) by Elaine Chew, Peter Child, Lina Viste Grønli
Intermezzo – for Pedja (2015) by Jonathan Berger
MorpheuS Haydn (2016) by Dorien Herremans, Elaine Chew / Franz Josef Haydn
Sonata in E-flat, Hob XVI:45, finale by Franz Josef Haydn
Pianist-mathematician Elaine Chew is Professor of Digital Media in the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London. Deeply passionate about communicating not only her art, but also how and why musicians do what they do, she designs boundary-crossing concert-conversations that challenge the ways we think about and make music. Also an award-winning scientist, she frequently gives keynote lectures on her mathematical work on musical expression and the music structures that shape expressivity.
Tues 31 Jan at 7.30pm
Film: Tuning In, a portrait of Stockhausen, by Barrie Gavin
Film: In Absentia by Brothers Quay
In Absentia was commissioned by the BBC as part of ‘Sound on Film International’. It was a collaboration between the filmmakers Brothers Quay and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Combining intense images with pure electronic music and diffused in the ACCA in surround sound this will make a spectacular impression on the viewer. A rare opportunity to experience it on the big screen.
Barrie Gavin has made approximately 70 documentaries on leading musicians and composers over a career starting in the 1960s. He continues to work. Gavin has a strong link with Sussex Music Dept and has visited to give masterclasses and lectures. This vivid portrait of Stockhausen entitled ‘Tuning In’ was made for BBC Television in 1981, and is a remarkable and accessible introduction to this composer, featuring interviews with Stockhausen and scenes of the composer at work. The film was directed by Barrie Gavin, devised by Robin Maconie and features Singcircle with Gregory Rose, and ‘sound engineer’ Simon Emmerson, as well as Aloys and Alfons Kontarsky.
Wed 1 Feb at 7.30pm
Audiovision
New works and performances inspired by Stockhausen, electronic music and music and the moving image, by University of Sussex Music students Natalie Whiteland, Anton Pearson, Louis Borlase, Jason Hazael and Ella Moll (Rochelle Rochelle), Tom Reid.
Louis Borlase and Anton Pearson perform guitar with effects, tape and live electronics with an accompanied visualisation including Super 8 film loops from Goldsmiths design graduate Alec McWilliam. The piece is a collaboration following our compositional developments spanning across undergraduate studies and recent postgraduate work. The performance will be semi-improvised featuring new approaches to electronics.
Natalie Whiteland, Alex Jacobs, and Lewis Shields are composing and performing a live score to 'The Comb' by the Quay Brothers. Natalie will be playing harp, Lewis on guitar and Alex live electronics and a zither.
Rochelle Rochelle perform improvised loop-based electronics, voices and guitars involving a reassembly of extracts from Stockhausen's text-notated intuitive compositions.
Tom Reid’s work is on music for early silent film including Walter Ruttmann. We are delighted that Tom’s music will be performed by the brilliant Riot Ensemble, making its debut at the ACCA. http://riotensemble.com/
Fri 3 Feb to Sat 4 Feb
Ray Lee - Siren
Siren is a whirling, spinning spectacle of mechanical movement, electronic sound and light. Twenty-nine large metal tripods, up to 3m tall, have rotating arms that spin around, powered by electric motors. Hand built electronic tone generators power loudspeakers at the end of each arm creating an extraordinary sonic texture of pulsing electronic drones. Small LED’s at the end of the arms trace circles of light as the arms rapidly rotate creating a compelling visual image.
For further information and to book see www.attenboroughcentre.com
Co-presented by ACCA, Department of Music, Centre for Research in Creative and Performing Arts.