This chapter describes the final stage in creating an audiovisual performance and the final product. The final idea coming out of the collaborative preparation phase will be tried and evaluated during a five-day-long residency, with the outcome of the experiments being presented four times to an audience of 15-20 people per performance over two days[41]. Firstly, this chapter explains the location and performance context and the initial idea starting the live experimentation phase resulting from the collaborative preparation. Then it will explain the conducted experiments regarding music visualization and how these experiments have affected the final performance.
The live experimentations and the performance took place in the attic of Kunstruimte Het Langhuis in Zwolle: a building with a history going back to the year 1400. This week-long residency was made possible, because of Het Langhuis’ Open Space program: an open call to all creative makers in Zwolle to freely use their building as a place to exhibit their work[42]. It supplied (a) space for experimentation and performance.
As the final visual form was clear, the following step in the process was making artistic decisions in the visualization of the music with the LED installation. Sebastiaan and I decided to, instead of working with the full harp sonata, only work with the third movement. First of all, there was a small time frame in which we had to finish the performance and we wanted to work in detail on the combination of the visuals and the music. Secondly, the third movement fitted the performance space, the visual ideas, and the gloomy, but soothing atmosphere of the attic space best. Especially the second movement would have rubbed shoulders with these points as its character would be too fast and “lively”. The first movement could have worked, but it did not lend itself too well to visual inspiration, or we had needed more time to experiment with this. The third movement based on the poem, gave more context, ideas, and inspiration for making choices regarding the lights[43].
Now that the audiovisual performance would be with the third movement of Paul Hindemith’s Sonate für Harfe, it was time to shape the actual light plan for the LED installation. Sebastiaan and I started by discussing the music, to have a clear idea of the structure, dynamics, and phrasing. As Sebastiaan was not familiar with analyzing classical music, we talked about sentences instead of phrases, which helped to convey the structure of the piece better. Also, the music can be put directly onto the sentences of the poem. We made the following decisions in terms of synchronization and visualization of the intensity and structure of the music through the lights (with sentences 1-4 are about the first strophe of the poem, and the first section of the music):
After these ideas, Sebastiaan pointed out that the third movement of the sonata is quite difficult to understand for a non-trained ear, especially when hearing it for the first time. Also, for a trained ear it can be hard to hear the development of the material. If we wanted to make the structure clear, for example in the variation of the thematic idea in sentences 5-8, we should even repeat the same visual information in the two sections. Otherwise, the audience would not notice the similarities in the thematic material. We took these ideas with us when deciding on the final light plan.
After deciding on the structural choices regarding the lights, we used the poem Lied to have visual inspiration in terms of colors and atmosphere for the sections of the music. As Sebastiaan and I both do not have synesthesia, we decided to take inspiration for the color of the lights from a few words from the poem:
From the ideas sketched in the earlier paragraph and the conducted research on the theoretical background of music visualization, Sebastiaan and I started our experiments to see what works best with the combination of hearing and seeing. These conclusions have been made through observation and discussion[44]. Firstly, some general decisions are mentioned, then some choices in terms of synchronization and color (as mentioned in the Audiovisual chapter).
As mentioned, the performance was part of the Open Space program of Kunstruimte Het Langhuis, where, next to our performance, two other art collectives were exhibiting their work. As Sebastiaan and I only performed twice a day, we decided on still having something connected to the actual performance showing in the space while we were not performing. This ended up being a small loop of light in the LED structure while playing one of the Hindemith improvisations on the first movement in the background. This dedicated the space to the performance, even when we were not there. Another general choice we made was placing the harp horizontally in the LED installation as this would look best in the symmetrical installation. Next to that, we decided to start the performance by citing a freely translated Dutch version of Hölty’s Lied, to introduce the music, lightened by only an LED strip mounted to the harp (as can be seen in the video).
As mentioned before, Sebastiaan and I decided to let our color scheme be inspired by the poem Lied by Ludwig Hölty. Next, we thought about the general atmosphere of the piece, and what colors we felt were right with the music. This resulted in a warm color scheme, going from white to yellow to orange. Blue and green would have been too cold for the piece, the harmonies, and the atmosphere of the piece. Next to that, it would not have worked with the atmosphere of the attic space[45]. In the final performance, the color changes highlight the different musical sections. During the strophes mentioning “den goldenen Saiten” and “Bienenton”, the color of the lights turned into a warmer color. Next to that, we decided on turning the lights off between musical phrases or strophes in the poem, to delineate the musical structure.
The experiments done on synchronization included trying out interactivity, speed of light movement, and light intensity. We mounted a basic pickup system in the harp, which we connected to the software. The lights would then react when the music was played[46]. The music asked for smooth transitions in the reaction of the light, which would gradually strengthen and diminish with a slow curve. Hard cuts in the light transitions would not have fitted with the flow of the music and the resonance of the harp. In general, we decided that the movement of the lights would be slow, also because fast-moving lights would have looked too much of a funfair attraction.
As a result of our experiments, we decided that we wanted to try out the interactivity at the beginning of the piece, only during the first phrase, as this was the most ‘vertical’ part of the music[47]. The more flowing parts in the music worked better with a pre-programmed loop. The original idea of visually building up the structure by highlighting different lines, corners, and areas did not work out as the hardware was not correctly built, so the software did not match the design anymore. During the pre-programmed loops, we would let the lights slowly move, fade in, and fade out. In terms of interactivity, we had to be careful with the dynamics while playing, as the sensitivity of the interaction could not be too high, as it therefore would pick up surrounding noise. This resulted in me not being able to play too soft. We experimented with the intensity of the light on climactic points in the music, or whenever there was a clear dynamic change. These choices all resulted in the following visual outcome:
The final performance ended up being inspired by the structure of the harp sonata, the emotional narrative of the poem, and the program narrative, as mentioned by other harpists. The effect of the LED installation in the attic space had a significant effect on the audience’s feeling, as everyone was in awe by the space as they mentioned when asked their thoughts on the performance. For future projects, I would consider a space with better acoustic quality. As the performance only lasted 10 minutes, there was a lot of information to process and reflect upon for the audience in a short amount of time. People were mesmerized but also mentioned that they just got into the performance when it had already ended. I am happy with the minimal approach in the design of the LED installation and how it fits the space[48]. The music and lights did not harm each other[49]. One audience member made an interesting comment that the parts where the lights were interactive with the music, made you look more at the lights, while the moments with pre-programmed loops would let you listen to the music more.
The video was shot by Anaïs Saebu and edited by Sebastiaan Smink. The harp audio has been recorded and produced by Koen Gardebroek. For programming the LEDs, Sebastiaan got help from Pauric Freeman. The poem has been recited and translated by me. The voice audio has been recorded and produced by Hendrik Behnen.
