The Divine Leakage is a collective composition by Palle Dahlstedt, Per Anders Nilsson, Tim Perkis and Gino Robair.
Performers: Hedvig Jalhed, and Agnes Kofoed Christianson soprano voice; Palle Dahlstedt, Per Anders Nilsson, Tim Perkis, and Gino Robair live electronics, Gusten Aldeklint, sound design.
Rough Outline
1) xx by Tim Perkis, part 1. The event opens with a prerecorded video displayed on hand made paper mounted on 20" drum rim, where Hedvig Jalhed performs solo. The lyrics is inspired by Wittgenstein's Tractatus.
2) Wall Paper Music by Palle Dahlstedt can be described as a game piece, consisting of a graphic game board, movement rules and text instructions and involves the whole ensemble.
3) Signs and symbols by Per Anders Nilsson is a duett for the two soprano singers and live electronics. A kind of "Q and A" form where Agnes is asking and Hedvig answers about signs and symbols.
4) Part 2 of xx by Perkis
5) A collective instrumental free improvisation involving live and pre recorded sound of paper.
6) xx by Gino Robair is a graphic score for the whole ensemble which demands interpretation of graphical patterns and symbols such as lines, stars and dots.
7) Part 3 of xx by Perkis
8) Tractatus Piece by Per Anders Nilsson. Ten selected paragraphs from Wittgensteins Tractatus is sung alternatively by Agnes and Hedvig. The score is printed on hand made paper, which hangs from a washing line. The whole performance ends with the famous quote: "Om det man inte kan tala, därom måste man tiga." (That which cannot be said, one must be silent there of).
Wallpaper Music, Palle Dahlstedt, November 2023
Instructions for musicians
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travel along the lines
• from left to right• or from right to left
• up or down
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at every crossing, you need to turn 90 degrees
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for horisontal lines
• if it has markings (they all do, except when they border a color blob):
• play the graphic score
• pitch/register is indicated by position of notation mark relative to the line • time is proportional along the X axis
• you can repeat a line if you so desire, a maximum of five times -
for vertical lines
• if it is not bordering a color blob:
• travel in silence, duration proportional to length of line -
when you encounter a color blob • white
• carte blanche / ad lib / play freely • red
• makeasoftactivetexture • blue
• teleport to any another blue blob in the score
• inside a blob, you can also travel diagonally, emerging at any of its crossingsInstructions for singers
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The lyrics are generated by a very simple machine learning algorithm, trained on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.
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The piece starts with ca 5 mins instrumental, then...
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Choose a text box and sing it mechanistically, inspired by the notes/gestures/rhythms in a
music box near the text box.
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Sing mechanistically and repetetive (repeating or slightly varying the rhythmic/melodic
fragments indicated), somewhat monotonous. Not expressive, nor too fast.
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Your role is impersonating a philosophy-generating AI.
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After having sung one box, take a small break, move or rotate a little bit on stage.
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Then choose a new box, next to your previous one. If you encounter a color blob, you can
teleport to another color blob on the score and continue from there.
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It is OK for both singers to sing at the same time – operate as if you are an independent
algorithm.
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If you want, you can predetermine a path through the score beforehand, or improvise your
path.
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We have to agree on an ending...
Tractatus for two soprano singers and live electronics,
Per Anders Nilsson, April 2021
This composition uses ten selected paragraphs in Swedish from Ludvig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Philosophicus Logicus first published in 1922. The selected paragraphs are as follows:
1 Världen är allt som är fallet.
The world is all that is the case
1.1 Världen är totaliteten av fakta, inte av ting.
The world is the totality of facts, not of things.
2.013 Varje ting befinner sig på sätt och vis i ett rum av möjliga sakförhållanden. Detta rum kan jag föreställa mig som tomt. Däremot kan jag inte föreställa mig tinget utan rummet.
Each thing is, as it were, in a possible state of affairs, This space I can imagine empty, but I cannot imagine the thing without the space.
3.01 Totaliteten av sanna tankar är en bild av världen.
The totally of true thoughts is a picture of the world
4.1212 Det som kan visas, kan inte sägas.
What can be shown, cannot be said.
4.116 Allt som över huvud taget kan tänkas, kan tänkas klart. Allt som kan utsägas, kan utsägas klart.
Everything that can thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be put inn words can be put clearly.
6.41 Världens mening måste ligga utanför världen. I världen är allt som det är, och allt sker som det sker. Det finns inget värde i världen – och om det funnes, så skulle det inte vara av något värde.
Om det finns något värde som är av värde, så måste det ligga bortom allt som sker och är på ett visst sätt. För allt som sker och är på ett visst sätt är tillfälligt.
Det som gör det till något icke tillfälligt kan inte ligga i världen, för då vore detta i sin tur tillfälligt.
Det måste ligga utanför världen.
The sense of the world must lie outside the world. In the world everything is is at it is, and everything happens as it does happen: in it no value exists— and if it did exist, it would have no value.
If there is any value that does have value, it must lie outside the whole sphere of what happens and is the case. For all that happens and is the case is accidental.
What makes it non-accidental cannot lie within the world, since if it did it would itself be accidental.
It must lie outside the world.
7 Om det man inte kan tala måste man tiga.
What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
The swedish translation is made by Sten Andersson, and published by Nordsteds 2012. Used with kind persmission from translator and publisher.
Signs and Symbols, Per Anders Nilsson November 2021
Lyrics
A = Agnes Kofoed
H = Hedvig Jalhed
A: Jag har en fråga
H: Låt höra!
A: Skillnaden mellan ett tecken och en symbol?
H: The difference between a sign and a symbol?
A: Exactly!
H: A sign, a symbol
A: A symbol, a sign
H: Ett tecken, en symbol
A: A sign
H: A symbol
A: A symbol
H: A sign
A & H: Te-e-e-e-cken, sy-y-y-y-mb-o-o-ol (opera wail)
Interlude: not much happens
H: A sign, on the one hand, is something that stands for something else
A: Please, clarify!
H: A sign points to something else, and a form of communication is embedded within the sign in order to do be able to do so
A: What about a symbol?
H: on the other hand: All that a symbol CAN express, it MAY express (in Monk, p. 151)
A: allt en symbol KAN uttrycka, KAN den uttrycka?
H: Jooo, så är det.
A: Hur kan man då veta?
H: En konvention!
A: A symbol is a subordinated sign, … one may say that it is…
H: … a mark or character used as a conventional representation of an object, function, or process.
A: En representation!
H: En representation!
A: A sign, a symbol
H: A symbol, a sign
A: A sign
H: A symbol
A: A symbol
H & A: A sign
Interlude: not much happens
A: Hur vet man?
H: Ett tecken kan förstås på tre sätt: symboliskt, ikoniskt, som index
A: symbolic, iconic, indexical
H: Indeed! A symbol you need to learn, learn!
A: An iconic imitatates.
H: Such as?
A: A portrait, a scale model, metaphors
H: The indexical: smoke, thunder, phone ringing. Understand?
A: Understand!
A: A sign, a symbol
H: A symbol, a sign
A: A sign
H: A symbol
A: A symbol
H & A: A sign
