Program List:

Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri 

Contact

trio for prepared motors, amplified foam board, and 100 glass head pins

motors, silicone, vintage pins, foam board, contact mics

Commissioned by Curious Chamber Players

Supported by: Swedish Arts Council and the

Grekisk konstmusikfestival (Greek Art Music Festival)

Contact explores the micro sounds within materials through physical interaction to create minimal but rather complex organic sounds and textures. It is based on the idea of simplicity that leads to complex behaviors. In this piece, Papalexandri explores a new paradigm in her work by ‘programming’ with materials.

The sounds are produced when certain motor-driven flexible “tentacles” come in contact with moveable metallic pins, which can be inserted and removed by dynamic human performers, like an instrument that requires constant tuning. Different tones are struck in an emergent, errand manner, making the performer listen intensively, interacting as it were with a live organism. The foam board is used here as a resonator (transducer) and ideal material to hold the pins. Musical parameters, such as rhythm, pitch, and timbre, are determined here by the behavior of materials.

Travis Christopher Johns

Composition for Ensemble

Composition for Ensemble (2022): Inspired partially by Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies as well as my own experiences performing and recording Mark Appelbaum’s Metaphysics of Notation, this piece is designed to invoke the various intricacies of relationship and contract between composer, ensemble and individual, as well as what constitutes the notion of ensemble in the first place. To accomplish this, the ensemble is presented with a set of index cards printed with a series of abstract markings derived from digital data extracted from one-hundred one-minute thirty-three second improvisations on digital electronics that were conducted over the summer of 2022. Prior to performance, it is the responsibility of the ensemble to democratically determine what, if any meaning these markings may hold. Interpretation does not have to be limited to musical sounds or gestures – rather any action can be inferred from the cards up to, including and surpassing movement, text, speech, theatrics, animation, found objects, film, consensual sexuality and so on. Any nonconsensual or violent actions are strictly forbidden. Prior to each performance, each card is assigned a duration determined at random from zero to the one-minute thirty-three seconds to reflect the maximum duration of each improvisation the card is derived from. At the start of the performance, a random number between one and one-hundred is pulled determining the maximum number of actions to be performed by the ensemble. Once determined, each performer draws a card and performs the pre-established action derived from the symbols. At the end of each individual action, the card is discarded and the performer draws a new card until the maximum number determined actions is completed. In that regard, the ensemble is allowed to follow their own path through this composition, guided only by their pre-agreed definitions of notation and interpersonal dynamics, with the role of the composer diminished only to an ambiguous structure set in place to allow the ensemble to determine their own collective actions.

Performers:

Pisol Manatchinapisit

Noppakorn Auesirinucroch

Siravith Kongbandalsuk

Saksilpa Srisukson

Patumwan Piensub