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Hotel Chelsea

Concert work for organ and symphony orchestra

‘Hotel Chelsea’ is an exploration of the extent to which new roles and relationships are possible for the orchestra, both as an entity and as a collection of musicians; it is also a rigorous investigation of the organ’s sonic palette and an extension of the tradition of organ concerti.

The work forges new perceptual links between the organ and orchestra, so that the audience hear and see the orchestra not as a familiar ensemble but as a large eco-system which interacts with the organ. Orchestra members sing, chant, and move, and a live drum kit is combined with multiple radios – part of an enlarged soundworld in which the music/noise dichotomy becomes irrelevant.

Extensive experimentation with the organ of the National Concert Hall in Dublin made it possible to explore many of the instrument’s idiosyncrasies. For example, the opening section of Hotel Chelsea focuses on the organ’s extreme lower register, a zone of frequency and timbral potential rarely used in organ music. The sounds produced – not unlike jet-engines – are combined with percussion and low brass to create a situation in which the audience are not sure how the sounds are being made or from where they emanate.

This strategy – presenting the listener with sounds which produce perceptual confusion – is used throughout ‘Hotel Chelsea’ and is based on ideas in Steven Mithen’s book ‘The Singing Neanderthals’ (2005) about how the brain codes and organises “musical” and “noise” sounds in different neurological modules. Just as “musical” and “noise” processing activates disparate modules in the listener’s brain so too does activating the orchestra as a visual spectacle: the organ is "hacked" to produce unusual sounds and when it is switched off, an action which produces extended pitch glissandi, the orchestra mimic the sound with a silent "Mexican Wave" shaped by the conductor.