two “prepared” singers with different voice registers, around a high-standing cocktail table.
two “prepared” singers with different voice registers, around a high-standing cocktail table.
Document title A.Sch_B: In memoriam Manuel João Fernandes (1920-2012)
Date of Composition· 2013
Dedication
Work dedicated to Manuel João Fernandes
Notes
Variable duration: 1’50’’–17’00’’
Instrumentation
Musical Category Chamber music (2-8 instruments)
Instrumentation (general) two “prepared” singers with different voice registers, around a high-standing cocktail table.
Program Notes
I composed A.Sch_B: In memoriam Manuel João Fernandes (1920-2012) for a project of the artist Hong-Kai Wang, invited by the Arnold Schönberg Centre in Vienna to integrate the exposition on the occasion of the institution’s 15th anniversary. Hong-Kai invited 12 foreign composers who live in Austria to reflect on the following subject: “What’s the consequence of musical change?” This discussion resulted in the material for the text employed in the composition of 12 pieces for voice. The scores would be exposed together with excerpts of footage form the rehearsals with the composers and performers.
And so I wrote the piece A.Sch_B: In memoriam Manuel João Fernandes (1920-2012), for two “prepared” singers with different voice registers, around a high-standing Cocktail Table. The piece is dedicated to my dear grandfather.
It is is composed of 40 fragments disposed in a circular form in two A3 pages; its form is open; there are no clefs, but yes the indication that the voice of the higher register (in this case the soprano Gaia Mattiuzzi) should read the score as if noted in the G clef and the voice with lower register (in this case the baritone Andreas Jankowitsch) should read the score as if noted in the F clef. The material is resumed in the pitches evoked in the title, noted in two of the above-mentioned clefs: A, Es, C, B, and B flat (read in the German use) and plentiful inflections of quartertones. Both singers use “heads” from the recorders (soprano for the lower voice and alto for the higher voice), which serve as filter of the voice modulation, either leaving the tube open or closing it, as well as passing through intermediate positions, in accordance with the notation to each fragment. The singers should examine the score on the Cocktail Table illuminated by a candle. They also have strings with jingle bells attached to their arms and legs, which attribute a resonance to their movements – the objective is to restrain the quality of the movements. The singers should try not to produce sound with the bells, which happen to be impossible. The voice dynamics is limited by the technical capacity of the singers in emitting the singing with the most possible intensity, however without producing the sound of the recorder, and consequently the emission of a pitch through the instrument. The intelligibility of the text is secondary, but the attempt to achieve it is intended. The singers have various possibilities of choice throughout the score; from one fragment to another they are confronted with multiple choices. The piece’s beginning is defined in two indicated moments, from which the two singers start to read the score. From then on it belongs to their total responsibility to develop the piece, as well as to decide on finishing the lecture of the score. This is followed by extinguishing the candle by one of the singers using the head of one of the recorders. The right moments for this effect are indicated in various places of the score. The minimal duration is of 1:50 and it should not surpass 17 minutes. [ka'mi, 2013]
Commission
Date 2013
Commissioning Body Arnold Schönberg Center for the Hong-Kai Wang's project “What’s the consequence of musical change?” to be integrated in the exposition “art is: new art”
