Output details

Antarctique - seventh and final part of GRAND ATLAS:

représentation du monde universel en sept tableaux musicaux - for large symphony orchestra

Antarctique for large orchestra was commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with financial support from the Performing Art Fund NL. The first two performances by the RCO, Susanna Mälkki conducting, took place during the Holland Festival, on 22 and 23 June 2012, Westergasfabriek Gashouder, Amsterdam (Netherlands).

Antarctique continues Rijnvos’ research implementing ideas drawn from contemporary artistic practice. It uses a minimum of musical material stretched to a maximum scale. In this it draws on the work of American visual artist Richard Serra, whose sculptures focus on concerns which are universal: they limit themselves to the use of physical qualities and forces, such as weight, mass, scale, gravity, balance and tension. Through these ‘impersonal’ parameters Serra creates highly individual sculptures that evoke a universalistic expressiveness.

Antarctique investigates the use of universal musical means that can be considered parallel to concepts such as weight, mass, scale and gravity. Instead of ‘musical’ time, Clock-Time forms the basis for the overall structure. Rhythm, rather than being ‘narrative’, limits itself to a regular Pulse. Chords result from Superimposition, applying the principles of the Circle of Fifths. The harmonies are assembled by means of a Cantus Firmus, constructed from an All-Interval Twelve-Tone Series.

Spatialising Clock-Time, the twelve percussionists of the orchestra form a live clock in surround sound – we hear time passing along the pitches of a chromatic scale: every five seconds is marked by the next semitone, from the next position, on the next bell. Yet, in Antarctica, our everyday concept of time is challenged, since all time zones converge at the South Pole. 'Antarctique' concludes by reaching this point in time and space: in the last minute we hear time ticking counterclockwise on twelve woodblocks. The final stroke is heard on all of them, as if all hours of the day collide.