Henrik Hellstenius: Personality&Essence for quartertone marimba and electronics

Performed the third of October 2007 at the Ultima festival in Oslo. A solo piece for Quartertonemarimba and voice.

Part 1 and 2 are supposed to go attacca.

Blogg:

October.

The concert vent great. I managed to keep calm and speak and tell the story Henrik had prepared. I played the best I was able to. The score was difficult in part one, but I think it went OK. The part became to long as we taught just before the concert, but the material was good so we kept it. Next time we must do a shorter version of pert 1. Part two vent well, it is fun to play with the score and make music and tell a story, I tried to keep it down and be calm, and I managed that. Part 3 was also a good feeling. The conversation vent good, we had good contact and managed to get some humor into it! I loved the ending. I had to bee at another concert hall in the academy and just had to finish the piece and run. The musical material was good to play with and I felt we had good contact during the conversation. Overall the process was good. I learned a lot about timing, how to play and talk and reflect at the same time, and Henrik's contribution on stage made sense. For the next time we can consider to do a shorter version 12 minutes. The topic can be a bit more positive and to the point and I can of course play the score even better! The music tech can be easier and the quality and levels of the files can improve. Over all the time was short but we capt the spirit and the result was ok.

September 27: Today we had a session. Great fun. Henrik had prepared some samples and they worked very good! A great story! for part A. Part 3 i tried with speaking upon the score. Ending ut with reflection on how to keep focus. What difficulties I have, Ambitions and drought an unsecured Henrik was happy! Part 2 was a poem read in english by another person, Not sure if it is going to work. Part 4 as well. I challenged Henrik to have a conversation on pert 5. It worked also good. The composer on stage talking to the performer about the process. It must work, but we are on a thin line....

September: I sampled 3 sessions of 20 minutes. One just fragmented taught's. One with trying to rehears and getting input from telephone and mail. Chaos. Are planning to sample marimba as a part two from the score.

September:
Rehearsing the score. Difficult and a lot of work. Struggling to read the symbols but is is getting there. I am curious about how to make the text work. Reflections while I am playing. I also need to sample some text for Henrik. Reflections on the project and reflections on the marimba an how to be a performer. We are planning to use Ableton Live to start and stop sound clips.

First week of August. I started to go thru the whole score. It seems to be playable. A lot of notes, but it is scored ok and readable. The tempo indications are very high. I doubt it will be possible to play it that tempo. I need to find the characteristic of the sections and work into it. I need to find a way in to the voice part. A story, fragments, personal, work, music, art, percussion, quartertonemarimba. Or just do the instructions by Henrik. We are to meet on wednesday, and I am sure we will find a way inn to it!

The piece is going to be a duo for Quartertonemarimba and Prepared Piano during the spring of 2008 Else Olsen and Henrik discovering the prepared piano possibilities.