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- Juliana Hodkinson
can modify completely/in this case/not that it will make any difference … (2015)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
- 0000/2221/2perc/hp/str 0.0.4.4.2
- egtr
- 14 min
Programme Note
… Can modify completely / in this case / not that it will make any difference … for solo electric guitar and orchestra, is written for Aart Strootman and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra on the occasion of the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Award.
In this orchestral piece, the strings of the solo electric guitar are re-rigged and massively detuned and re-tuned, to achieve an extremely noisy and low bass register, as well as to create meandering microtonal bends and slides. The music, and even the instruments, are under modification the whole time.
Embedded in the score and parts are news headlines from the months when I was working on the piece, such as: “South Carolina lowers Confederate flag”, “Iran chooses moderate plan”, “Poet is doubly honoured by Manchester”, and “Bears could lead way for healthier astronauts”. These headlines are sonified in the music according to Morse code (i.e. individual letters and spaces are converted to rhythms and played on a monotone) or converted through other compositional operations and associations into sound. In addition, the percussionists play radios, supplementing the media inputs. These are very literal and concrete attempts to create a relation between current events, their representations in media and communications, and the material aspects of a musical work.
The title is an extract from Cynthia Troup’s libretto for our chamber opera Turbulence, where it is spoken by the Pilot through a flight intercom system.
In this orchestral piece, the strings of the solo electric guitar are re-rigged and massively detuned and re-tuned, to achieve an extremely noisy and low bass register, as well as to create meandering microtonal bends and slides. The music, and even the instruments, are under modification the whole time.
Embedded in the score and parts are news headlines from the months when I was working on the piece, such as: “South Carolina lowers Confederate flag”, “Iran chooses moderate plan”, “Poet is doubly honoured by Manchester”, and “Bears could lead way for healthier astronauts”. These headlines are sonified in the music according to Morse code (i.e. individual letters and spaces are converted to rhythms and played on a monotone) or converted through other compositional operations and associations into sound. In addition, the percussionists play radios, supplementing the media inputs. These are very literal and concrete attempts to create a relation between current events, their representations in media and communications, and the material aspects of a musical work.
The title is an extract from Cynthia Troup’s libretto for our chamber opera Turbulence, where it is spoken by the Pilot through a flight intercom system.
Scores
Score preview