Modules
88
Bernhard Gál
Composition for (amplified) piano, 2003
DESCRIPTION
In 88, each key of the piano is only hit once. The sustain pedal remains pressed down during the entire performance. Depending on dynamics and pitch, complex tonal combinations of varying duration and intensity emerge. In this composition, the order of tones is of no essential importance, and was determined in a strictly incidental selection process. To further the acoustic awareness of the audience, Gal often strives to uncouple the acoustic and visual layers of a musical performance (and sometimes recombines them later in a more composed manner).
Below are two suggestions for a choreographed presentation of 88:
Performance option 1)
The concert space is dark. The only light source is a lamp on the piano’s music stand which dimmly lights the score. The piano is positioned with the pianist’s back facing towards the audience. In front of the piano stands a translucent screen, the performer can only be seen as a distorted shadow.
Performance option 2)
The concert space is dark. The only light source is a bright spot light positioned on the floor behind the pianist’s chair, turning the performer into a black silhouette (direct light needs to blocked). The piano is positioned with the pianist facing the audience. The pianist tries to play without any visible gestures, only moving the forearms which cannot be seen by the audience. Thus a visual connection with the sounding tones can not be established.
OVERVIEW
Duration: 6-8’
Audio requirements: 2-4 microphones inside piano, PA stereo system (2 or 4 loudspeakers)
Light: see performance options above.
Premiere: Xenia Hu; Kunstverein Alte Schmiede, Vienna, March 2003
Audio Excerpt: http://www.bernhardgal.com/sound/88
ECHO
Belma Beslic
Composition for piano and video projection, 2008
DESCRIPTION
Echo strives to test interactions between visual inputs and generated shadows, real and false images, live-generated and pre-produced sounds. The final goal is to create a picture of one parallel reality. The analysis of the movie “La dolce vita” brought three different sound layers to light. Each one represents a specific visual component of the movie. The music is a reflection of the story, focusing on its philosophical, psychological and sociological aspects. It reflects the emptiness and false happiness of the postwar jet-set society.
OVERVIEW
Duration: ca. 9’
Video requirements: video projector plus projection screen, vga cable (5m or 10m)
Audio requirements: piano
Premiere: Graz, AUT – KUG, December 6th, 2008
Audio Excerpt: http://www.belmabeslic.com/echo-two.mp3
HIBERNATION
Belma Beslic
Music theatre for a commanding insomniac and hibernating crew, 2009
SYNOPSIS
Year 2053.
The commander of a space shuttle, a genetically engineered insomniac, freights the cargo: hibernating human beings. In their imposed dreams, they are travelling through an unknown dark space, unaware of their final destination, unaware of the reason(s) of their voyage, unaware of the time that passes. Awakening, so it seems, is impossible and the main question remains an unsolvable enigma: to whom belongs and what is reality?
DESCRIPTION
HIBERNATION aims to explore the limits of the audience’s perception. By using intermedial means of artistic expression, its intention is to carry the listener/viewer through different states of awareness. Further, it is a demonstration of belief that our own realities are just our own projections, a result of subjective, personal perspectives. Ultimate truth is unreachable.
In „HIBERNATION“, the sound projection has the function of a bounding tissue between different conceptual components. It is a fundamental parameter, one that directly influences all other components. One main aspect is a voice recording of George Byron´s poem ‘Darkness’. The video part reflects the subconsciousness of the hibernating beings, the emotional void of the commander, as well as the vortex of time. The minimalist stage lighting symbolizes openings in the space-time continuum.
FURTHER INFORMATION
http://hibernation2009.blogspot.com/
OVERVIEW
Duration: 27 minutes
Video requirements: Video projector plus projection screen, VGA cable (5m or 10m)
Audio requirements: PA stereo system (loudspeakers, stage mixer)
Light: self-provided
Scenography: height: 180cm, width: 100cm, length: 160cm (design T.Tadic)
Premiere: Sarajevo, BiH – Sartr, April 21st, 2009
Add. performances: TKT festival Tuzla, Narodno pozoriste RS Banja Luka, SKC Beograd – April 09
RELIVE
Bernhard Gál
In addition to his work as a composer and installation artist, Bernhard Gál also performs live, using a laptop computer along with additional electronic devices. Gál’s solo concerts arecomprised of elements from recent music and art projects as well as new field recordings, which he takes apart and reassembles in a quasi-improvised, live context. In many cases, the performances also reflect the respective concert venue, with its distinctive acoustic and sociocultural characteristics.
relive (Gromoga Records, 2008) is Bernhard Gal’s eighth solo production, after several CDs, a catalogue book and a DVD released on a variety of labels such as Durian, Plate Lunch, Intransitive, Klanggalerie and Gromoga.
Since 2002, Gál has performed over 150 concerts on four continents. This is his first live-cd, featuring excerpts from concerts recorded between autumn 2007 and summer 2008. No sounds were added or edited afterwards, so that the live character of the original recordings would be maintained.
OVERVIEW
Duration: flexible, 15-30’
Audio requirements: PA stereo system (2 or 4 loudspeakers), stage mixer, table, chair
Light: very dark, no light or just very dim light
Infos & audio excerpts: http://www.bernhardgal.com/relive_cd.html
TEXTUR
Bernhard Gál
Audiovisual performances, combining phonography and photography, 2005 – 2009
textur is a series of audiovisual works by Bernhard Gal, combining phonography and photography in installations or live performances.
In an attempt to integrate textures from the visual and acoustic realms, textur is based on snapshots from the ‘real world’ that show a certain textural quality, i.e. either repetitive, rhythmic elements or amorphous, static qualities. textur is considered as an ongoing exploration, a work-in-progress in the best sense. Depending on context and possibilities, it may be presented as a live performance, a video projection, or a site-specific installation.
textur #1 2005 based on photographs from several flights between Vienna and Berlin.
textur #2 (radio ears) 2006 based on photographs of satelite dishes in Istanbul.
textur #3 2009 based on photographs of a water surface from Niterói, Brasil.
textur #4 (stromlinien) 2009 based on photographs of electricity wires from Oman.
Past Presentations: Frankfurt, Opava, Nitra, Vienna, Istanbul, New York City, Mendoza, Montevideo, Budapest, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Tuzla, Banja Luka, Beograd, Sarajevo.
OVERVIEW
Duration: textur #1: 12’, textur #2: 18’, textur #3: 6’, textur #4: 8’
Audio requirements: PA stereo system (2 or 4 loudspeakers), stage mixer, table, chair
Video requirements: video projector, projection screen, vga cable (5m or 10m)
Infos & audio excerpts: http://www.bernhardgal.com/textur.html
UTOPIA PLANITIA
Belma Beslic
Intermedial music concert of a potential future, 2008
DESCRIPTION
For the first time in history, a worldwide audience can witness a live performance in a direct TV broadcast with musicians who don’t inhabitate the same world. The violin player is on Earth, and the organist is on Mars, in an outpost located in Utopia valley.
The organist starts his performance 3.2 minutes prior to the violinist, This way that the auditory can witness a simultaneous interplanetary performance – transmission signals need some 3,2 minutes to cross the distance from Mars to Earth ( on 17.07.2065 – ca. 56.000.000 km; speed of light = 299792458 m/s ). Therefore, the performers will never actually play together. His present is her past and her present is his future… This duo is a temporal illusion. A mutual real-time reality doesn´t exist. The audience perceives a third time, the temporal insinuation of something that one might call NOW.
The music composition formally consists of three parts: electronic Introitus, ac/el. Main and electronic Exitus. The composition technique focuses on creation of minimal sound bubbles. The general form is flow, while subformal structures ( phrases which are actually openings and closings of the formal and dynamical circles) are simulating ebb and flow.
The violinist is dressed in a purist, minimalist suit. The astronaut suit which the organist wears is not just conceptual costume design: it symbolizes the urgent need for an independent micro space, a personal biosphere which protects from the nightmares of the modern world’s society, from the constant bombardment of information. It is a symbol of bodily and emotional isolation. An escape from time.
OVERVIEW
Duration: ca. 16’
Video requirements: version 1 – video projector plus projection screen, vga cable (5m or 10m);
version 2: same as above, plus video camera for live transmission
Audio requirements: PA stereo system (loudspeakers, stage mixer, cd player)
Light & Scenography: self-provided
Premiere: Hörfest, Graz, May 4th, 2008
Performers: Annelie Gahl (Vl.), Klaus Lang (Organ), Belma Beslic (electronics)