Ragnhild Berstad: Con Vitri, Recludo, Quaero and Respicio.

WHY USE QUARTERTONE INSTRUMENTS?
In my harmonic universe, where notes outside the tempered system have the same importance as the tempered one, Kjell Tore Innerviks quartertone instruments were a great discovery!
As early as in 1993 I wanted to use quartertones on marimba in my piece Mellom fr og etter. By pasting self-sticking rubber on the node-areas under the bars I was able to lower each note by approximately 50 cents. An undesirable side effect of this method was a clear muffling of the marimba sound.
In my work Emutatio I had to use a synthesizer to get what I wanted - a quartertone vibraphone. Initially I used a synthesizer for playing quartertone vibraphone in Recludo too. But during my work I met Kjell Tore, and this meeting was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration. Recludo was followed by Respicio, a solo work dedicated to Kjell Tore's quartertone instruments, vibraphone and marimba. Then I wrote Quaero tilblivelse, an orchestral work where the quartertone vibraphone again has a central position. A new version of Respicio is now in progress expanded with live electronics and pre-recorded sound.

BIOGRAPHY

E-mail Ragnhild Berstad

Con Vitri
Respicio
Quaero
Recludo