OTHER INSTRUMENTS
This year’s Warsaw Autumn Festival features predominantly compositions for historical instruments, various traditional cultures, and atypical or rarely used instruments. We shall present new music written for these instruments, not stylisations or reminiscences of ancient or ethnic music. The programme aims at showing how the timbral and technical capacities of these instruments enrich the language of modern music. Does music become different when it uses those “other” instruments?
BAROQUE ORCHESTRA, NATURAL HORNS, DOUBLE-BELL TRUMPETS
You shall find out during a number of concerts, including, importantly, the opening concert. Performers will include the baroque orchestra Arte dei Suonatori and musikFabrik, an ensemble specialised in new music. They will first play separately in sequence before joining forces in Martin Smolka’s Semplice, a work for instruments young and old—the former opposed to the latter. The originality of this outstanding composition partly rests upon the different tuning used by the two groups: ancient instruments are tuned to A4 = 415 Hz, while modern ones to 440 Hz.
Arte dei Suonatori will appear on stage again with cellist Dominik Połoński to perform Artur Zagajewski’s brut. The “other” instrument in that work is not only the ensemble itself but also the specifically prepared cello.
In Aureliano Cattaneo’s Double, the “other” instruments are new inventions: double-bell brass, constructed by musicians of the musikFabrik to significantly extend the possibilities of musical play, for example the instantaneous change from con sordino to senza sordino. The “otherness” of this composition is further emphasised by the use of two baroque recorders and four slide whistles.
The climax of the evening will be György Ligeti’s masterful Hamburg Concerto for horn and chamber orchestra with four natural horns. Both works will be interpreted by musikFabrik. The Concerto’s virtuoso solo part will be performed by Christine Chapman, with the whole (apart from the undirected brut) directed by Stefan Asbury.
ANDEAN AEROPHONES
An event that will undoubtedly reveal the power of “other” instruments will be the concert of Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos from Bolivia. This unique new music ensemble plays on traditional instruments of the Aymara and Quechua cultures and prehistoric cultures of the Andes. These notably include pre-Incan siku reed panpipes, archaic quena bamboo flutes, and tarka flutes made of a single wood block. The OEIN essentially uses these instruments according to their original build, with specific blowing techniques, non-tempered scales, and characteristic performer behaviour.
The music played by this ensemble, using its specific capacities, is mostly composed by Latin American composers and reveals some strikingly original timbres, based notably on harmonics and mixtures, atypical noise textures and colours. We shall hear works by Graciela Paraskevaídis, Canela Palacios, Alejandro Cardona, Tato Taborda, and Cergio Prudencio–composer, conductor, and musical director of the orchestra. His work will also feature another extraordinary dimension of this experiment of new music for ancient Indian aerophones: that of magical reality.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE INSTRUMENTS
To reveal the value of one’s traditional culture and enliven musical modernity—these are also the premises of the Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra from Beijing. This outstanding group of musicians uses Chinese instruments to play classical (in Chinese historiography, music composed until the third century BC) and modern music. Interestingly, both the Bolivian and Chinese orchestra practice new music while cultivating ancient music. The Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra comprises plucked string instruments: the pipa (Chinese lute), the zheng zither (guzheng), and ruan, a type of guitar, as well as two-stringed bowed erhu and banhu, yangqin dulcimer, sheng reed mouth pipe, bamboo transverse flutes, and percussion instruments. The concert’s programme will include the world premieres of Wenchen Qin’s Listen to the Valleys (this highly original composer, originating from Inner Mongolia, will also be featured in a Sinfonia Varsovia concert), Shanghai composer Guohui Ye’s 964•Heterophony, and Wojciech Blecharz’s (one)[year](later), which also features a vocal countertenor part. Moreover, we shall hear the works of internationally renowned composers Wenjing Guo and Guoping Jia as well as Yi Chen, based in the United States.
OTHER VOICES
Vocal voices as “other” instruments? Yes! But that “other” instrument is not the voice itself but rather a specific vocal technique. During an extraordinary night, Israeli composer Yuval Avital’s REKA was be presented—a work commissioned by Warsaw Autumn and staged in cooperation with the MITO SettembreMusica festival in Milan. Avital invited six leading soloists to this project, masters of traditional singing in different regions of the world; an important role is also played by a 100-strong choir, composed of nonmusicians who perform the work from a graphic score. In our case, that choir will be composed of volunteers who applied to participate in the workshop and concert.
The soloists in REKA are special artists, representatives of ancient traditions: Sainkho Namtchylak, overtone shamanic singing of the Siberian minority of Tuva; Yusuf Joe Legwabe, Zulu vocal techniques from South Africa; Omar Bandinu, guttural bassu singing of the ancient vocal polyphony in Sardinia; Sofia Kaikov, modal singing of the archaic Jewish tradition of Bukhara; and Enkhjargal Dandarvaanchig, Mongolian nomadic overtone and guttural singing. Lama Samten Yeshe Rinpoché is an even more special participant of the project: representing the oldest tradition of Bön Tibetan Buddhism, he decided to join REKA because of the ethical and spiritual message of the work.
This giant musical fresco, composed of whispers, cries, chants, and prayers, is by no means a presentation of ethnic music. It is a composition where vocal sound, with all its emotional and symbolic richness, is the true fabric: from sonoristic effects and the imitation of sounds of nature (the choir of nonmusicians) to the different vocal techniques treated as “sound objects.” On the other hand, soloists in REKA are not just performers: they are missionaries of their cultures. The composer’s intention goes beyond pure sonorism or notional references to traditional music: he creates a giant framework for metacultural archetypal situations.
BAGPIPES AND QANUN
Erwan Keravec, a bagpiper from the Breton musical tradition, decided to prove that the bagpipe can fully contribute to new music, with no references to traditional art. Indeed, without seeing him, it would be difficult to guess the instrument that summons that wall of sound, microtones, clusters, and polyphonies. Keravec will present three compositions by Phillippe Leroux, Xavier Garcia, and Benjamin de la Fuente.
In the second part of the concert, we shall here Wojciech Ziemowit Zych’s spatial composition for eight cellos and electronics, and Zaid Jabri’s work for the same ensemble and a soloist (Feras Charestan) playing on the qanun, an Arab zither capable of microtonal tuning. Both compositions were written for Cellonet, a very special ensemble that will deliver their world premieres.
GAMELAN, DIDGERIDOO, CONTRABASS CLARINETS
The Warsaw Gamelan Group will present Indonesian composer Michael Asmara’s work Gending Bonang and Przemysław Scheller’s Yiri for didgeridoo and live electronics. The remainder of the concert will consist of works for contrabass clarinet duo, performed by the brilliant Ernesto Molinari and Theo Nabicht: Annesley Black’s tender pink descender, Andrew Noble’s trickle down, and the world premiere of the two virtuosos’ own improvised composition, titled 29,4 :174,61.
GUZHENG AND BAROQUE HARPSICHORD
Simon Steen-Andersen used the Chinese plucked chordophone, guzheng, as the solo instrument in his Ouvertures for guzheng, sampler and orchestra. The work will be performed by Sinfonia Varsovia under the baton of Daniel Gazon. The composer has tuned the guzheng microtonally, and amplified it. It will be played by Le Liu, a musician of extraordinary technique and expressivity. Ouvertures will be preceded by Andrzej Kwieciński’s Concerto. Re maggiore for orchestra and another plucked chordophone, the baroque harpsichord, with Gośka Isphording as soloist.
The programme will furthermore include Zygmunt Krauze’s Underground River 2 for electronic sound and symphony orchestra, and Qin Wenchen’s Yin Ji for orchestra, a particularly striking work imbued with the atmosphere of Tibetan rituals.
SHŌ AND KOTO
In order to fulfil the commission of Vienna’s Phace Ensemble to compose live music for the silent film of Teinosuke Kinugasa A Page of Madness of 1926, Gene Coleman has additionally included Japanese instruments, the shō and koto. They will be played by guest soloists Naomi Sato and Naoko Kikuchi.
E-ZITHER
Leopold Hurt scored his new work, Gatter, for electric zither and ensemble. Hurt is also a zither virtuoso, and will be the soloist of this performance, accompanied by the European Workshop for Contemporary Music directed by Rüdiger Bohn. The ensemble, a joint educational project by the German Music Council and Warsaw Autumn, is currently running a workshop in Darmstadt at the International Summer Courses for New Music, and will present a programme in Warsaw and Darmstadt consisting, apart from Hurt’s work, of Gérard Grisey’s Partiels (the “other” instrument here is the entire ensemble), Raphaël Cendo’s Action Painting, and Cezary Duchnowski’s new Parallels for piano, MIDI keyboard, percussion and cello.
SOVIET SYNTHESIZERS, COLLECTIVE COMPOSITIONS
“Historical instruments” usually mean those of ancient music. As it turns out, electronic instruments can also be “historical” nowadays, not obsolete. This observation is confirmed by the DIISSC Orchestra from Vilnius, which aims at exploring those instruments. DIISSC perform Venta, a collective composition for “other” instruments: old analogue organs and synthesizers of the eponymous brand, produced in Vilnius during Soviet times. The timbre of several Venta models has been enhanced notably with the use of legendary synthesizer Polyvoks.
OTHER ELECTRONICS: PIANOPHONIE
If these analogue electronic instruments are historical, is music composed for them thirty of forty years ago to be considered ancient music? In a way, yes, as it constitutes the historical context of modernity, especially when it is live music to which we keep returning.
We certainly do return to Kazimierz Serocki’s Pianophonie. His only work involving electronics shall be played at Warsaw Autumn for the third time. Not only because the solo piano, by playing directly on the strings (pizzicato, with the use of mallets, etc.) and electronic transformation of sound, becomes an “other” instrument, according to the composer’s intentions. And not only because that now classical work can serve as a context for many compositions of this year’s programme. In fact, the work will be presented at 2014 Warsaw Autumn in a digital reconstruction by Adam Kośmieja (who will be the soloist) and Kamil Kęska, programmer and sound engineer. Written for piano, live electronic and orchestra in 1976–8, the composition is impossible to recreate in its original analogue form: the devices that were used to realise it are gone. Apparently, therefore, the situation is the opposite of the DIISSC Orchestra: historical music is played on modern (nonoriginal) instruments, creating a new electronic work. But we may look at it differently. Serocki’s idea that the soloist controls the transformations of the piano sound in real time may be achieved fully and smoothly thanks to Kośmieja and Kęska. Thirty years ago, the equipment required was huge and required several people to run it. The device now controlled by pianist Adam Kośnieja is therefore an “other” one, in the sense of a new, improved technological solution.
RENAISSANCE INSTRUMENTS
Another work that serves as historical context for compositions of this year’s Warsaw Autumn is Mauricio Kagel’s Kammermusik für Renaissance-Instrumente of 1965. It will be performed by the Wrocław ensemble Theatrum Instrumentorum, run by Tomasz Dobrzański. Ten musicians will use more than a dozen different instruments, including transverse flutes, shawms, dulcian, cornett, violas da gamba, positive organ, regal, lute, theorbo, and percussive instruments.
Kagel’s decision to use Renaissance instruments was avant-garde per se; he himself viewed it as a diversion from the norm, a defect—which is precisely what attracted him going against the current of “normal sound.”
In order to emphasise the mood of those years, we have included Pauline Oliveros’s composition for tape Bye Bye Butterfly, also of 1965. The “other,” newly developed instruments that she used include Hewlett-Packard oscillators, linear amplifiers, tape recorders, and a gramophone, and have become “other” again in the sense of “historical.”
For balance, the second part of the concert will feature the Lutosławski Orchestra Moderna, presenting the works of the newest generation of Polish composers: Kamil Kruk, Piotr Peszat, Piotr Roemer, and Szymon Strzelec.
GLASS HARMONICA
The programme of our final concert will include, apart from Kazimierz Serocki’s Pianophonie, three major compositions: Body Mandala for orchestra by Jonathan Harvey; Spiral House for trumpet and orchestra by Tansy Davis, one of the leading English new-wave composers; and Armonica for orchestra, glass harmonica, and accordion by Jörg Widmann. Glass harmonic is often mistaken with a series of glasses, so it is worth emphasising that this instrument, popular at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, consists of a set of crystal rings placed on a shaft, put in circular motion by a pedal mechanism and rubbed with a wet finger. Christa Schönfeldinger will play the glass harmonic, Maciej Frąckiewicz the accordion, and the trumpet soloist will be Marco Blaauw; the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra will be directed by Jacek Kaspszyk.
OTHER STUFF
Independently from the “other instruments” theme, this year’s Warsaw Autumn will feature the works of Agata Zubel, Marcin Stańczyk, and Djuro Živković, as well as a new work by Jakub Sarwas. These will be played by the New Music Orchestra (OMN) directed by Szymon Bywalec.
Agata Zubel’s Not I for voice, ensemble and electronics is a mildly theatrical work, based on a text by Samuel Beckett. The vocal part is interpreted by the composer, and there is a video layer by Marcin Bania. Zubel, Stańczyk, and Živković received prestigious awards for their works: Not I received the highest score at this year’s UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, in Prague and the Polonica Nova Awards; Marcin Stańczyk received the 1st Prize at last year’s Toru Takemitsu Award for his Sighs; and Živković is a 2014 Grawemeyer Award winner.
LITTLE WARSAW AUTUMN
This festival of contemporary music for children will, as always, feature different kinds of events. Young artists from Cracow shall hold a narrative concert with specially composed works for “new” instruments, Bum Bum Rurki. Artur Zagajewski welcomes children and parents to the Łazienki park for a performance titled Słuchodrzewisko (a pun on słuchowisko, radio feature, and drzewa, trees). Sławomir Wojciechowski will run a workshop on listening to echoes, and German artist Erwin Stache shall present some nice installations: a orchestra of cuckoo clocks and playing carts.
FRINGE EVENTS
This year’s Warsaw Autumn Festival will be accompanied by a series of fringe events, including meet the composer evenings, the presentation of a collection of Andrzej Chłopecki’s columns Dziennik ucha. Słuchane na ostro, two conferences on Andrzej Panufnik and the New Music: New Audiences association, and of course fringe concerts, including one by the visual artists’ trio Sebastian Buczek, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Tomasz Kowalski organised within the Warsaw Gallery Weekend, in which “other” instruments will also be prominently featured.
COMMISSIONS AND PREMIERES
Composers who have written works for this year’s Warsaw Autumn include Wenchen Qin, Cezary Duchnowski, Yuval Avital, and young composers from Cracow, who prepared twelve miniatures for the Bum Bum Rurki ensemble.
There will be 24 world premieres.
I look forward to welcoming you during this year’s Warsaw Autumn.
Director of the Festival
