Pan Kamyczak w krainie dźwięku. Wyprawa na Warszawską Jesień (Mr Pebblestone in the world of sounds. A visit to Warsaw Autumn)
Boomwhackers
Musical toys made of plastic, associated with educational practice, wedding parties, or football fan gadgets, are the main protagonists of this unique concert of the Little Warsaw Autumn. Twelve young Cracow-based composers, students of the local Music Academy, have taken the challenge of presenting these toys in a completely new context. Each of them wrote a miniature piece in which boomwhackers take pride of place. The plastic tubes are accompanied by instruments well-known from the concert hall, but also some quite atypical ones, never heard in the philharmonic hall or the opera. These miniatures have been arranged into a musical show, lasting short of one hour, abounding in coloured lights and mysterious stage props. It will be performed by the composers themselves, with a conductor who also acts as the narrator – Mr Pebblestone, and by the children sitting in the audience.
Mr Pebblestone is a fairy-tale character, a visitor from the faraway Boomwhackland, where all sounds are hard and grey like stone, except for those made by the mysterious boomwhackers, which until recently, could sing out all the colours of the rainbow. Unfortunately, one day they also turned to grey stone. This is why Mr Pebblestone has travelled to the Warsaw Autumn Festival, where, as the legend goes, not only can one get a cure for the boomwhackers, but also collect the finest sounds in the world and take them back to his own country. Mr Pebblestone has travelled to the Festival through the kingdoms of earth, water, fire and air, and on the way he came across many different sounds, which he put in his sack. It was out of these sounds that the cycle of musical miniatures was made up.
The whole cycle is divided into four sections of three miniatures each, corresponding to the four elements. It was hoped that this music would come to life under the spell of the Warsaw Autumn Festival, so that upon Mr Pebblestone’s return to Boomwhackland, new shoots of music would sprout out from those sounds, go into bloom, and forever change the face of the enchanted land. It soon turned out, however, that only children can master that kind of magic. This is why Mr Pebblestone has decided to hold a concert during which a special feat of magic would be accomplished. Music can only come to life and blossom when listened to by sensitive ears. The spectacle begins at the moment when Mr Pebblestone arrives at the Festival; he reports his adventures to the child audience and presents the miniatures. The spectacle is not just a story about music, with sounds playing a merely illustrative role. On the contrary: the musical compositions are in fact the true heroes of this tale.
The adventures of Mr Pebblestone form an abstract narrative that inspires the imagination and creates a world based on atypical associations related to sounds and music. Its purpose is to develop children’s sensitivity to that sphere of experience of the surrounding world and to build up their ability to describe the world of sounds in a rich and complex manner. Sounds may be pretty or ugly, quiet or loud, but they can also have flavours and textures, can be rough or smooth, dusty or polished. To discover this, one needs to discover the sounds in one’s own mind.
Piotr Roemer and Maciej Koczur
Musical toys made of plastic, associated with educational practice, wedding parties, or football fan gadgets, are the main protagonists of this unique concert of the Little Warsaw Autumn. Twelve young Cracow-based composers, students of the local Music Academy, have taken the challenge of presenting these toys in a completely new context. Each of them wrote a miniature piece in which boomwhackers take pride of place. The plastic tubes are accompanied by instruments well-known from the concert hall, but also some quite atypical ones, never heard in the philharmonic hall or the opera. These miniatures have been arranged into a musical show, lasting short of one hour, abounding in coloured lights and mysterious stage props. It will be performed by the composers themselves, with a conductor who also acts as the narrator – Mr Pebblestone, and by the children sitting in the audience.
Mr Pebblestone is a fairy-tale character, a visitor from the faraway Boomwhackland, where all sounds are hard and grey like stone, except for those made by the mysterious boomwhackers, which until recently, could sing out all the colours of the rainbow. Unfortunately, one day they also turned to grey stone. This is why Mr Pebblestone has travelled to the Warsaw Autumn Festival, where, as the legend goes, not only can one get a cure for the boomwhackers, but also collect the finest sounds in the world and take them back to his own country. Mr Pebblestone has travelled to the Festival through the kingdoms of earth, water, fire and air, and on the way he came across many different sounds, which he put in his sack. It was out of these sounds that the cycle of musical miniatures was made up.
The whole cycle is divided into four sections of three miniatures each, corresponding to the four elements. It was hoped that this music would come to life under the spell of the Warsaw Autumn Festival, so that upon Mr Pebblestone’s return to Boomwhackland, new shoots of music would sprout out from those sounds, go into bloom, and forever change the face of the enchanted land. It soon turned out, however, that only children can master that kind of magic. This is why Mr Pebblestone has decided to hold a concert during which a special feat of magic would be accomplished. Music can only come to life and blossom when listened to by sensitive ears. The spectacle begins at the moment when Mr Pebblestone arrives at the Festival; he reports his adventures to the child audience and presents the miniatures. The spectacle is not just a story about music, with sounds playing a merely illustrative role. On the contrary: the musical compositions are in fact the true heroes of this tale.
The adventures of Mr Pebblestone form an abstract narrative that inspires the imagination and creates a world based on atypical associations related to sounds and music. Its purpose is to develop children’s sensitivity to that sphere of experience of the surrounding world and to build up their ability to describe the world of sounds in a rich and complex manner. Sounds may be pretty or ugly, quiet or loud, but they can also have flavours and textures, can be rough or smooth, dusty or polished. To discover this, one needs to discover the sounds in one’s own mind.
Piotr Roemer and Maciej Koczur
