Output details

'until unbidden go' for violin and laptop with 4 channel sound.

First performed by Mifune Tsuji and the composer at the “Beckett And Music Interdisciplinary Symposium” organised by the Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre and the Department of English and Drama, University of Sussex. 2009-02-27.

'until unbidden go', for violin and laptop with 4 channel sound.

(audio recording and conference info see WEBLINK / CD-ROM)

Until Unbidden Gone (SCORE PDF on CD-ROM / print-out attached) brings together a number of research imperatives and constraints, including:

• an engagement with the work of Samuel Beckett and his interest in Romantic music (since commissioned by the Beckett Conference);

• making an electronic real-time algorithmic part using only SuperCollider software for synthesis and sequencing (relating to my other research, e.g. REF Output 1 Hall_Coll);

• writing a piece for a given known performer (Mifune Tsuji), that was idiomatic to her musical interests and ‘dramatic’ playing style.

Samuel Beckett's strong interest in the music of Franz Schubert is a focal point of this composition, in particular the settings of 'Der Erlkönig' (The Erl King) and 'Der Tod und das Mädchen' (Death and the Maiden).

The sectional form of the composition follows the dialectical one of 'Der Tod und das Mädchen' and the Schubert setting of Goethe’s 'Der Erlkönig': alternating death/maiden; father/child. 'Until Unbidden Go' has short contrasting sections (loud/dramatic, soft/undramatic), to which prerecorded violin material is also heard via the live algorithmic electronic part–composed using the same processes as the primary score.

(audio recording on WEBLINK / CD-ROM)

In performance, the 4 channel electronic part surrounds the audience, comprising two strands: playback of violin fragments as described above, and recordings of natural and human activity. The latter aim to evoke an atmosphere in harmony with the German texts, and also references their narrative, especially of 'Der Erlkönig'– a continuous sound of rain, and foreboding footsteps. The opening sequence of electronic elements also pays homage to opening structure of sounds in Beckett’s radio play, 'All That Fall'.