Wednesday 1st June, 7:00pm, Festivalscene

Tick, tack, tock

Staged Music – Staged Time

TICKETS: 90 kr. (Students and under 25 discount: 60 kr.)  > See ticket and discount info

Republique and Athelas New Music Festival have given set designer and stage director Jacob F. Schokking the challenge of making a stage show on the basis of music which is being performed live. What will happen when the music is combined with Schokking's visually striking scenic imagery?

Jacob F. Schokking has been given the task by Republique of uniting art music and theatre. In the fascinating theatrical laboratory of Schokking, we examine how the experience of sound, time and space transforms when these elements are combined in a new way. Among the spectacles we will witness are a race between a bicycle and a grand piano, and the internationally famed conductor Pierre-André Valade in front of an orchestra consisting of 100 metronomes. The music is interpreted by a star-studded team of musicians and linked by the electronic interventions of Christian Winther Christensen.

A word about the music::

Time is the pivotal point of “Tick, Tack, Tock”. The five pieces of music selected for the show have the theme of time or the experience of time in common. A word about the music:

György Ligeti created a sensation in 1962 with his “Poème Symphonique” for 100 metronomes, which are to be set in motion at different measures. Ligeti called the work “a critique of ideologies – all ideologies, in that they are all stubborn and intolerant towards others.”

Per Nørgård's piano work “Achilles and the Tortoise” is named after the Greek philosopher Zeno's famous paradox: that Achilles never will be able to catch up with the tortoise if the tortoise gets only the slightest head start. Per Nørgård calls the piece a race between the different elements of the music “none of which can be proclaimed the winner.”

In Steve Reich's “Four Organs” the Farfisa organs jointly plays a chord which is then varied and broken, while at the same time the duration is gradually lengthened from an eighth note to to 200 beats in the end. Reich mentioned both Debussy, Thelonious Monk and the Medieval composer Perotin as his inspirations. In “Pendulum Music” by the same composer, microphones are swung back and forth like pendulums over a loudspeaker – and the resulting feedback noise becomes a music of chance.

In Morton Feldman's “Three Voices” the soprano sings very accurately in pitch and in sync with two recordings of her own voice – first the singing is wordless, in finely wrought vocalise patterns inspired by Oriental carpets, then it becomes a setting of Frank O’Hara's poem “Wind”.

“Tick, Tack, Tock” is produced by Republique and based on a concept by Rasmus Adrian and Anders Beyer. It is part of Republique's workshop series “Sounds of Senses”.

HOLLAND HOUSE

Jacob F. Schokking – stage director and set designer

Sofie Elkjær Jensen – soprano
Kristoffer Hyldig – piano, organ
Christian Winther Christensen – live electronics and organ
Alexander Ross McKenzie, Manuel Esperilla – organs
Mathias Reumert – maracas
Pierre-André Valade – metronomes

Peter Plesner – lighting design
Jakob Thorbek, Lotte Broe – video design
Gert Sørensen – sound design “3 Voices”
Nikolaj Trap – set builder
Jakob Alexander Bertelsen – cyclist
Frederik Heitmann – system technician
Mikkel Secher Kroner – sound engineer
Sara Beyer - producer assistant

Program

MORTON FELDMAN (1926-1987): “3 Voices” (1982)

GYÖRGY LIGETI (1923-2006): “Poème Symphonique” for 100 metronomes (1962)

PER NØRGÅRD (b. 1932): “Achilles and the tortoise” for solo piano (1983)

STEVE REICH (b. 1936): “Four Organs” (1970) for 4 Farfisa organs and maracas

“Pendulum Music” (1968/1973) for microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers

Transitions, interventions and remix by Christian Winther Christensen