Swrd
General Info
Year: 1999-01
Duration: c. 15:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: NB Noter
Cost: Score and Parts - $0.00 | Score Only - $0.00
Preview: ftp://158.39.103.89/RATKJE/Ratkje_Swrd_part_vannmerket.pdf
Movements
Instrumentation
Multiple Percussion
Voice - Soprano
with Tape, and Bad Microphone
Program Notes
“swrd” is a piece which winds into itself in continued attempts to break free of that which is traditionally considered to be musically meaningful. The compositional process may be described thus: textual units were derived from English proverbs centred on the words ‘still’, ‘waters’, ‘run’, and ‘deep’. These words were recorded and subsequently coded into midi-signals, and thereafter subjected to a destructive feedback process; the result is a piece which bites its own tail and crumbles into indistinct remnants of itself. The words were then added again, giving the composition new direction; now the piece may be seen to focus on two main issues: the first deals with the boundary between spoken language and music, and the second issue highlights the conflict inherent in the process of reducing the level of communication. Is it possible to say that the textual element crushes the music’s desire for narrative gesture? Will the text become meaningful? The acoustic role of the musicians in a concert performance of this piece is problematical and anti-communicative, in stark contrast to the electronic, predefined part. The vocal part is reduced to text fragments sung in unidiomatic registers. The percussionist plays interrupted, dense, inaccessible patterns in which individual elements drown each other and the singer’s attempts to be heard. This situation may seem unresolved, but there is some release offered by the electronic part, in which the text and the harmonic element are clearer. In addition, the electronic part transcends at certain points the boundary of what generally could be considered as intended music. (Translation: Andrew Smith)[1]
Review
Errata
Awards
Commercial Discography
Online Recordings
Recent Performances
To submit a performance please join the TEK Percussion Database
Works for Percussion by this Composer
27’10″554 by John Cage arranged for percussion and CD - Multiple Percussion, with Tape
Eisenkreis - Percussion Octet
For Regndansere (For Raindancers) - Percussion Quartet
Rytmestudie - Percussion Duo
swrd - Multiple Percussion, Voice, with tape (3)
Additional Resources
References