Blogg about the prosess.

The instrument:

A set of keys on the lap top computer trigges sound samples in Albeton live, a synth tuned in 8-tones in Max/MSP, a prepared guitar + div objects.
The sound samples on the lap top are rooted to keys on the laptop keyboard. When i press "A", a sound starts to play. Each scene (12) is opened by numbers 1 - 12 and contain 5 sounds notated as "Midi triggers" in the score. In that way i just need to use 5 different keys.
The 8-tone microtonal synth has 48 tones in one octave.

Click for bigger image.

The patch is made by Alexander Jenssenius in Max/MSP, and modified by Christian Blom.
It converts the 12 tone system midi signal to sound from 221Hz to 442Hz in 48 equal tones.

Monday 16.4
Today i got the new Max patch to the micro synth modified by Christian Blom. Hopefully it will work! I have worked a lot getting sound from the conversations between Oyvind and me. Hopefully it will be interesting to listen to, but i need to do this in English next time, but the technology now works! I would like to start the sound in the background and not need to open a window with a player to listen to it. People should be able to look at the web page at the same time. I really got inspired by this conversations. I feel i understand a lot more what Oyvind wants.

Goals and improvements form the evaluation:
Midi synth 8-tone with after touch, possibilities of changing the sound, not to big.
Version for quartertone- marimba solo: two set ups, I will be my own teacher, swap the guitar and the micro synth with quartertone-marimba, find sounds on the marimba which are characteristic. Notated version? We are vorking to a sessions at the Academy of Music in May. In September with kids at the "research square in Oslo". The end session of the project in spring 2008.

Thursday 5.4.07

The concert went well. I started at eight to play the 12 stacks every 5 minute. I changed the Power Piont image and played each scene 2 times. I did this for one and a half hour. At the same time the ensemble of 10 people learned the "Tune park" and a ornament piece by yvind. The audience were served cookies and pastry as well as drinking bear and talking. Three artists were working in the room making drawings of the images by Marc Bell. A presenter made some annunciations before each "concert" and tried to explain the setting.They performed the piece at nine, and continued to learn pieces in the room. At 9.30 the "Krull" piece was performed in another room a couple of times. The concert started at 10. First the "Tune park", then the ornament piece. I started The stacks at ten thirty. I played it like a concert, Started the image and played my solo section and the imitating section twice, and made a signal to the ensemble to join in. They tried their best to "copy" what I played. I wearied with playing my solo section in the middle of each piece and in each end the ensemble played on while I checked the electronic and changed the image as a signal to go on to the next piece.I had some minor problems changing the images, but yvind sat by the computer and corrected the Power Point Al together it went as well as it could.

The ensemble consisted of 5 classical/contemporary musicians and 6 improvisation musicians. One old broken piano, an accordion, a double bass, a bass clarinet, a trumpet and guitars. The sat in a ring as a "Irish pub" setting of learning and playing. I went thru the piece with the ensemble at six o clock, but only short sections and tried my cues. They taught it was very difficult to copy, but it worked ok. It worked well.

The concert was located at the "Working men's club" in Bethnal green, East London. A really old, dirty, smelly Pub ca 400 m2. The cover charge was set to 5. I was located on stage beside the screen were we projected the images, and the rest of the musician where on the floor. People sat by tables and some stood at the bar. The audience arrived at 8 and bought bear and talked. All together it was 120 people on this event.

I started at 11.30 to set pp and test that everything worked. I tried the power adapter on a lamp first and it was no problems. And everything worked fine. At 12.30 the amplifier was turned on and i hooked on it with to XLR plugs on stage. The mixer at the bar was set so no buzz came out, and i had a lot of power left on my mixer. I equalized the outputs to sound optimal in the room. The synth needed bass, the Ableton samples was cut on the top, the sponge contact microphone was brightened and i took of the bass, the microphone on the guitar and paper was responding well with a boost in the bass, and the reverb was leveled to give everything a richer feeling. Every element tuned to sound the best individual first, Then i balanced the different instruments to get the feeling of equality of the sounds. When I was happy on stage, Oyvind played and I listened in the room from the audience position and instructed him to balance it. It became OK. During the day i got to rehears several times, but not with the sound on in the room. The only problem was the synth, it was not perfect 8-tones. The intervals was not equal, in the bottom they were to small and to big in the top...I was at the location all day and tested in the intermissions of the rehearsals. At six i went thru sections of the Stacks with the ensemble for 20 minutes.

The night before and the concert day. I spent two hours from 21.30 - 23.30 to look at the images and read the score to find links and characters. It felt better, but it was difficult to see what the inspiration as has been for yvind. It gave me something. The rehearsing without the instruments cleared a lot. I felt the phraces better and it is a great way to get the material into my body, to get in the mood of playing this piece, to get every other taught out of the head. It became more integrated and i felt committed to do the piece. I have been struggling a lot with it and was not happy about the situation at this point nor during the night or in the next morning. I started the day with going thru the score and images for an hour, before leaving the hotel leaving to the reherarsal. I was still unsecured while rehearsing and testing all day, but at some point i just had to let it go. It is not going to be perfect or exactly what's written on the score, but it is going to be something and it is going to be cool. The people listening in the rehearsals responded overwhelming and said it was great. I switched focus from trying to do the correct rhythmic to making music! Make something out of it, play with it, get red of the feeling of failure, be realistic, make it come to life. The tutti rehearsal was great,
the musicians responded well and made me confident. It worked in a strange way. yvind was happy.

Reflections. The material has a lot of potential! I need to know the material really well, feel it in my body to be able to teach it. I need to understand yvind. He need to sing or in some way be able to show and respond on what he wants. The phrases must be clearer.
We need to get over the experimental stage and make it work. The ideas of fragments or independent sections are not in conflict. He wants it to be musically clear even if the setting is a pub or something else,
the quality of the music is the same and the staging is on top of that, an even longer way to go. I need tempo directions, character indications, I just need get more confident on the material... think little faces on each impulse, fragmented but linear, delicate and rich sounds, learn like fake folk music,
We need to meet and go thru the sections, make it like Oyvind's original idea, Try to get Oyvind's intentions up front, get past the notation problems. Make him sing and show.

2.4.07
Friday and sunday i rehearsed 3 hours each. It is not at a sufficient level! I cant find the form of each section, and not the hole either... Will it become OK to listen to? This is the uncertainty witch of course comes in the days before a performance, but i am really worried about the quality of my work. I could really have needed three more weeks to get it under my skin and to the level of making a great performance.
The instrument is working ok. I have continued tuning the set up and it responds well .I feel finally like playing one instrument, but it should have been ready some time ago, but that is easy to say and I need to keep in mind the huge amount of time spent thinking about and building the set up. On the positive side it has made a commitment to the piece. It feels like it is my work as well, and not only yvind's.

London in the night:
Today Hkon and I has traveled to London and spent the day downtown. The City is not as big and intense as it seamed some years ago, but it has a atmosphere of a metropolis. I am constantly worrying about not being able to rehears to the concert tomorrow. Keep the focus, and read the score and look at the pictures, get inspired! The setting for the concert is loose everyone says, and when that feeling is not good! I need to deliver the best i can at every concert, it will not play by itself... I am now at the hotel a I have read the score, i got some new ideas, and it occurred to me that now one of the scenes have any indication of tempo or atmosphere. It is only symbols and I have of course gone thru it with yvind, but i am not clear of how to play it. Difficult, i feel insecure, I should have written some notes to remember it clearer, but on the other hand I am not sure whether yvind just encourages me in the process or if he really is happy with the result. It is easier to reach a goal if the tempo is clear, now it can be anything and it is determined by the difficulty of playing the scene, not good, i just play as fast as possible and try to get into the music, just make something out of it. yvind is very specific in what her wants, but it never show in the scores, it seems open and free, but it is not intended to bee. He has clear intentions, and it is my task to figure it out! I have to have a look of the pictures and the score.

I have gone thru the pictures, Some inspiration, but the link to the music it not easy to find. The pictures are extremely complex, but i think it will make sense. I have set some ideal tempos and named the atmosphere i want to get out of it, but then again it is my interpretation and hopefully the audience will get their own impression. The session helped on my feeling for tomorrow. I am getting to a point of coming closer to the music.

30.3.07.
Yesterday i finally got the 8-tone synth running on an acceptable level. Alexander inserted a graphic box were i could draw the level og velocity from the midi keyboard. The second problem with getting the sound out thru the RME sound chard was easy... Max and Ableton had to use separate channels out. I assigned the midi synth form max on 7 and 8 out. The Ableton sound samples on 1 and 2 out, and the amplified instruments an 3 and 4. It resulted in separate control of every instrument on the mixer! It works and i am happy, finally... I tuned the sound samples and got a nice reverb on the microphone, but the Synth in Max is not great, it stops working when i have used it for some time, and then i have to load it again. not optimal, but a known problem... I will load between every time i play in the first section, and have a short break in the end section of the concert when i am supposed to play the hole piece.
I rehearsed finally the hole piece and on a detailed level to find out how to play it and make it sound nice. I needed to keep in mind the time witch yvind refers to as baroque time with ornaments. The strange sounds makes it easy to float, but i need to keep it strict. The result sounds different than it feels in my body.

28.3.07.

We worked 2 hours with the synth, the fluid synth did dot work on PC(only Mac) and we could not use the Sound fonts in the synth Alexander made, we had to make a sampled synth by us self, and that is a lot of work, and we are not going to do it, the sinus tone is OK for this project. The micro synth made by Alexander did not have velocity and after touch so Alexander made another last night, i will test it after lunch. The RME sound-card did not allow Max and Ableton to run simultaneously! i had to send max thru the internal sound chard and it makes noise. Not good but it will work for now.

26.03.2007
Yesterday we rehearsed the Torvund piece for next week in London. We are getting there, but i need to feel it in my body. I need to rehears and be able to play with it! The technical difficulties are nearly solved, today Alexander is coming to fix the 8- tone synth. Worrying takes time and energy. The experience of teaching other people is useful and instructive, and the result will be great! The form and the level of sound in the location (a pub) still present a potential problem.The ensemble worked OK. They had different sections as layers of sound. I were supposed to play every 3 of 6 minute on top and change the image projected on the screen. We rehearsed the teaching aspect, and it was ok, but a bit blur and week. I need to take control of the situation and inspire the musician to take part!
As a thought for the future; will yvind's next piece be so pitch-oriented? Is it an idea to make an ensemble work in the 8 tone pitch system?

Video clip from the tutti rehearsal of the end section

22.03.2007
Today i went thru the piece and recorded it on video and sent it to the composer. Very use full and a lot of work! It took one and a half hours to edit and some time to record. During the process i learned a lot. I forced myself to focus on getting everything to work musically, make it come to life. 100% focus on rehearsing, and during the edit time I saw many possibilities as to how my ideas for interpreting the material worked out or did not work out. It helped me to get different perspective from an audience's point of view..

video clip from the rehearsal in my studio

19.03.2007
Today i went thru the piece, 3 hours. Fun to work with and well written. The density of the material is OK and it is possible to play, The samples work, the guitar work, the sponge work, need to find some varied objects. The fluid synth in Max/MSP is not working as hoped. It sends a constant signal, and the sound is not easy to alter, I need another synth, maybe in Pluggo or Hippno.

06.03.2007
Today yvind delivered the score of the 12 short pieces. It looks great. I am looking forward to beginning to work with the material.

05.03.2007
yvind brought the samples today, 5 for the 11 first pieces and 11 for number 12. I spread them out on the keys of the computer i 3 rows. I opened each piece from the number keys 1 - 0 and as 11 and as 12.(P and was used by number 12). In addition we tried the one octave of the 8-tone synth we are planning to use. I am still waiting for the Max/MSP licence where we plan to play the custom synth. Alexander Jenssenius made the patch yesterday tuning the 4 octaves into one octave with 8 tones.
We also went thru the 12 pieces with prepared guitar with ruler, click frog, objects, paper, sponge, plastic click and samples on the computer triggered by the keys. The score was nearly finished but not readable because of the edits.
Tomorrow yvind will bring the score.

01.03.2007
Today we tried out some instruments and looked at and tried out some of yvind's ideas. A guitar or ukulele. We looked for sounds saying "click". tried a sponge with a contact microphone inserted. Tried Abelton live and got the idea of tuning the synth using either an instrument or using the rerouting option. It took several hours and did not work. I sent a mail to Alexander "the wizard" for a solution of the problem. yvind wanted to use an 8-tone synth. The glissandos are great and the option of having a perfect pitch is great. (one octave).
The musical material is taking form, working with yvind ideas and trying them out.

23.01.2007
Marimba fragments: The concert went very well with Arve Henriksen and Morten Halle. I played the fragment and together they imitated the material. A great atmosphere! We did this in tree sessions. The first one quite loosely. yvind responded that he wanted a tighter version, and the next was even tighter. I played the phrase twice and they imitated several times and the material developed between us.In the third session it was part of a larger piece. Two percussionists were standing in two separate rooms and we in the third. The hall was the space where the audience could listen to the merging of the 3 separate sections. A great atmosphere. In our room we sometimes heard the sound from the others. It influenced the performance as a whole..

A 30 second video sample of the performance.
yvind Torvund's Marimba fragment with Morten Halle, Arve Henriksen and Kjell Tore Innervik

January 2007

3 sessions: yvind spent some hours with the instrument exploring different sounds. Dropping mallets, adding a synth tuned one 8-tone flat, drawing gestures on the marimba. He presented me with several sketches. I rehearsed and played them, and we tried the idea of teaching the material to the others. The material was quite similar and the variations between the pieces were small. But some of them had an definite atmosphere. I arranged for Arve Henriksen and Morten Halle to play together with me. And in the two adjacent rooms, the two percussionists were supposed to play drums and LP player. The piece was supposed to be listened to in the hallway.

Co-composer Klaus Sandvik looking into the percussion room to Ellen Trelease Eriksen.

Summary by Kjell Tore: I have worked with yvind on three major projects in the Oslo Sinfonietta. "Band room" one, two and three, and when the opportunity came to do this solo piece I was delighted. Everything yvind makes is characteristic and original. We work well together and we end up with strange music, but hopefully with something special! I am confident that the end result of this piece will be a

Kjell Tore Innervik. 2007