August Interaction will prove that the division between classical and popular music is only a convention. We will hear dareful compositions in which elements of classical music meet alternative, free improvisation, noise and even pop and funk. Unfeasible? Hear it for yourself!
Discussions about music (too) often highlight divisions. Classical music, popular music, alternative music, experimental music, pop, ambient, funk, blues... Is it still possible to define each of these trends without hesitation? Or are these categories no longer helpful to us?
The August Interaction will begin with the traditional chamber concert genre to further reach out to noise, funk and free jazz. The classical roots of Mantovani’s music will be lost in twisted melodies, jazzy harmonies and rhythms. The stifled sounds of Sara Glojnarić’s songs will clash with wild improvisation the screeching and rasping hooks of which may make us forget where we started this journey.
And it is not over at all! For on this evening, the musicians will face Wojtek Blecharz, who presents them with the challenge of a... virtually unplayable score. Finally, together with Matthew Shlomowitz, we land at the international railway station. From there, anyone can go wherever they want.
The concert will be preceded by a panel discussion in which the topic of culture and its promotion will be addressed by:
Krzysztof Marciniak – Glissando
Magdalena Doksa-Tverberg – KBF
PROGRAMME
Bruno Mantovani Concerto de chambre n° 2 for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion 17’
Sara Glojnarić – Sugarcoating for clarinet, cello and piano 10’
Wojtek Blecharz – Torpor for clarinet, violin, percussion and piano 11’
Matthew Shlomowitz Popular Contexts, Volume 7: Public domain music for clarinet, electric guitar, synthesiser and sampler,
percussion and cello 25’
PERFORMERS
Spółdzielnia Muzyczna
Sara Glojnarić – sugarcoating #2 for piano, clarinet and cello (2017)
The Croatian composer’s series entitled sugarcoating “is based on a readaptation of popular music’s most prevalent fetishes, according to information contained in the Million Song Dataset, a freely available collection of the sonic properties and metadata of one million popular songs. From a purely parametric point of view, these properties are reduction and homogenisation of the pitch and texture, loudness increase, repetition (loop) and one another feature, which is a product of the other parameters, namely the density. In this case, the impact of density is back on the musicians themselves, taking their concentration to the limit by overwhelming them with the amount of data and the micro-mechanics of perfection.”
source: saraglojnaric.com/work/sugarcoating-for-ensemble
Wojtek Blecharz – Torpor for violin, bass clarinet, percussion and piano (2008)
Torpor is a state of reduced mental and physical activity, involving the state of partial or complete unconsciousness. It is characterised by reduced metabolism: heart rate, respiratory efficiency and body temperature. Apathy, insensitivity, lethargy are often necessary and helpful to survive.
The text, the word, the symbol are the basis for shaping the course of the form. The letter of each phrase or word has a value assigned to it, which can be transposed into durations, pitches, timbres, articulations, volume levels, pauses and other musical elements.
Torpor is a kind of code, an encrypted record of events.
The composition was written for the Kwartludium ensemble.
Bruno Mantovani – Concert de chambre №2for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello (2010)
Mantovani is a composer and conductor who has worked with some of the most recognisable ensembles on the contemporary music scene, including the famous Ensemble intercontemporain. His music grows out of the French tradition, focused on timbre and sonic subtleties. In Mantovani's case, however, historical knowledge is accompanied by a deep awareness of the challenges of the present and a visionary view of the future. As a result, classical trills and a mellifluous ensemble sound are written into jazzy harmonies and into rhythms familiar from popular music.
Each performer here plays the role of soloist ⎻ they do not cease to be a separate, independent entity – yet they form an intimate organism with the rest, breathing common air. It is an atmosphere of a transitional period, an established state of limbo in which everything is mixed everywhere. “The time of doxas and schools has passed. The age of multiplicity has arrived.”
Matthew Shlomowitz – Popular Context, Volume 7: Public domain music for clarinet, electric guitar, synthesizer, sampler, percussion and cello (2014)
In this collection of multi-part pieces, instrumentalism is combined with recorded sound material, evoked using a sampler during the performance. This material comes in a number of different forms. These include field recordings from natural or cultural spaces (e.g. by the sea, in a café); music (e.g. a karaoke track, a sport supports chant); sounds and icons from commercial sound libraries; also sound in media contexts (e.g. laughter from a tape, a voiceover for a documentary). By exploring the ways in which recorded sound material transforms the experience of music and vice versa, the work deepens the understanding of how the meanings derived from art are influenced by context and the subjectivity of the listener. Furthermore, the piece strives for contextual shifts, especially between the high and low realms, playing with comedy, surrealism, transgression or bad taste.
Bruno Mantovani Concerto de chambre n° 2 for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion 17’
Sara Glojnarić – Sugarcoating for clarinet, cello and piano 10’
Wojtek Blecharz – Torpor for clarinet, violin, percussion and piano 11’
Matthew Shlomowitz Popular Contexts, Volume 7: Public domain music for clarinet, electric guitar, synthesiser and sampler,
percussion and cello 25’
PERFORMERS
Spółdzielnia Muzyczna
Sara Glojnarić – sugarcoating #2 for piano, clarinet and cello (2017)
The Croatian composer’s series entitled sugarcoating “is based on a readaptation of popular music’s most prevalent fetishes, according to information contained in the Million Song Dataset, a freely available collection of the sonic properties and metadata of one million popular songs. From a purely parametric point of view, these properties are reduction and homogenisation of the pitch and texture, loudness increase, repetition (loop) and one another feature, which is a product of the other parameters, namely the density. In this case, the impact of density is back on the musicians themselves, taking their concentration to the limit by overwhelming them with the amount of data and the micro-mechanics of perfection.”
source: saraglojnaric.com/work/sugarcoating-for-ensemble
Wojtek Blecharz – Torpor for violin, bass clarinet, percussion and piano (2008)
Torpor is a state of reduced mental and physical activity, involving the state of partial or complete unconsciousness. It is characterised by reduced metabolism: heart rate, respiratory efficiency and body temperature. Apathy, insensitivity, lethargy are often necessary and helpful to survive.
The text, the word, the symbol are the basis for shaping the course of the form. The letter of each phrase or word has a value assigned to it, which can be transposed into durations, pitches, timbres, articulations, volume levels, pauses and other musical elements.
Torpor is a kind of code, an encrypted record of events.
The composition was written for the Kwartludium ensemble.
Bruno Mantovani – Concert de chambre №2for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello (2010)
Mantovani is a composer and conductor who has worked with some of the most recognisable ensembles on the contemporary music scene, including the famous Ensemble intercontemporain. His music grows out of the French tradition, focused on timbre and sonic subtleties. In Mantovani's case, however, historical knowledge is accompanied by a deep awareness of the challenges of the present and a visionary view of the future. As a result, classical trills and a mellifluous ensemble sound are written into jazzy harmonies and into rhythms familiar from popular music.
Each performer here plays the role of soloist ⎻ they do not cease to be a separate, independent entity – yet they form an intimate organism with the rest, breathing common air. It is an atmosphere of a transitional period, an established state of limbo in which everything is mixed everywhere. “The time of doxas and schools has passed. The age of multiplicity has arrived.”
Matthew Shlomowitz – Popular Context, Volume 7: Public domain music for clarinet, electric guitar, synthesizer, sampler, percussion and cello (2014)
In this collection of multi-part pieces, instrumentalism is combined with recorded sound material, evoked using a sampler during the performance. This material comes in a number of different forms. These include field recordings from natural or cultural spaces (e.g. by the sea, in a café); music (e.g. a karaoke track, a sport supports chant); sounds and icons from commercial sound libraries; also sound in media contexts (e.g. laughter from a tape, a voiceover for a documentary). By exploring the ways in which recorded sound material transforms the experience of music and vice versa, the work deepens the understanding of how the meanings derived from art are influenced by context and the subjectivity of the listener. Furthermore, the piece strives for contextual shifts, especially between the high and low realms, playing with comedy, surrealism, transgression or bad taste.
