Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen: Colours and Contexts (2007)

Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen Colours and Contexts (2007) Picture sequence for projection for instruments ad lib.

Dur. ad lib.

For TWENTYTWENTYONE, Lithuania

SCORE

T/ (+45) 3313 5445 · E/ sales@edition-s.dk · W/ www.edition-s.dk

Composed with support from the Danish Arts Foundation With support from Koda’s Cultural Funds.

Projektet er støttet af Kodas kulturelle midler

Edition·S publications are supported by the Danish Arts Foundation / Edition·S udgivelser er støttet af Statens Kunstfond

Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen Colours and Contexts (2007) Picture sequence for projection for instruments ad lib.

Dur. ad lib

PROGRAM NOTE Colours and Contexts is a slide show made on the basis of various experiences with graphic means as music notation. The visual language is abstract, to be interpreted freely – there are, however, some general suggestions. A leading idea while composing was the dialectic between “organic” and geometric shapes.

Sheets 16–18 may have a compact sound with less individual pauses than before or no pause, however with clearly audible, shifting individual sounds or figures of limited durations (take care to find out how to achieve this – key parameter may be dynamics!). You may imagine individual journeys around in the picture in a crisscrossed way.

There are 26 graphic sheets, plus a blank one in the beginning and end. They depict a journey leading into different stages, but with a degree of gradual transformation from one sheet to the next.

Sheets 19 and on could suggest gradually less density and eventually more composite sounds which are also more transparent little ones.

The blank slides (first and last) could be synchronized with complete silence.

The sheets are to be interpreted into music. This can be by responding to their overall character, inventing corresponding music phenomena on both detail and general levels.

In sheets 01–04 there might thus be different sounds or figures of limited duration suggested by the different colours and geometric shapes – within a growing density.

Individual pauses between elements are thus important. When the sound becomes more dense, more and more of the short sounds occur.

Sheet 07 may be a very static sound. Sheet 08 may have a very gradual narrowing down of some selected parameter, pitch or maybe other.

Sheets 09–13 may have some slightly moving sustained tone and at the same time tones or sounds moving away from it and changing into various sounds figures of limited duration – again, suggested by the colours and geometric shapes.

Sheets 14 and 15 could signal a reduction to just one sound or figure each (without repetition).

Please take good care to make contrasts between the different stages clear (the ‘geometric shapes in space’, the ‘plant-like structure’, ‘the snailhouse’ and the ‘fragmentation process’).

If you have a good idea, you may discuss and realize the work in a different way. For instance, it could be possible to use only selected sheets and maybe place them in a different order. If slide show projection is not possible, sheets may be simply shown to the audience in some way. They should be visible for musicians while playing them, and shifts between slides should not occur with some automatic interval, but be controlled by the musicians. Individual slides may last a short or long time, according to what is needed musically.

The Power-Point file can be downloaded from the Edition·S website: http://www.edition-s.dk/assets/colours-and-contexts