Sense and Sensibility

Concert: Instrumental music with text!

This time Emanuel Bach has written himself: A load of comments – for a whole trio sonata! He actually translates, by means of footnotes, every single statement the two violins makes between themselves.
Reading this is great fun and very informative, but how on earth are you supposed to implement all this information while playing the piece? And – is it possible at all to convey the information to the audience?
Come join a new experiment aiming at a little deeper dig under the musical surface.

The concert was arranged in collaboration with Bergen City Museum, on November 3rd 2012.

On August the 31st 2012 the autumn rain cleared away, and allowed me to take my clavichord for a concert stunt at Bryggen. As I expected, it was a real challenge to capture the concentration of the passers by – not a little is needed for listening to a clavichord! Still several people stopped and payed attention.
As the clavichord is an instrument that doesn’t in any way bother your  next door neighbor, I had to use some amplification for my outdoor playing. This might have lost me some of the extreme intimacy that otherwise constitutes a vital clavichord quality.

Also here I experimented with apperances: First I played in my everyday clothes, before changing to a baroque dress. As at the Hanseatic Museum, the dress seemed to draw attention, but people who were really interested in the music would stop anyway.

Concert with Ingvill Holter (soprano) 

It takes time to take in all aspects of a piece of music. In most concerts the music is played through once, and the audience is left without a chance to perceive the details. This way of presenting music also gives the impression that there is only one, ideal way of playing the piece, and it’s just to hope that the performer will be good enough to make it.
In this concert, we spend one hour presenting 15 minutes of music. Playing the pieces several times, we discuss with the audience the nuances produced by different approaches to the performance, and also by superimposing text to instrumental music.

The concert was arranged in collaboration with Logen Teater and Café Chagall, 16th of September 2012. 

 

 

Ingrid and the clavichord visited the Hanseatic Museum at Bryggen on the 7th of August. We played for loads of tourists, experimenting with means of creating contact with people by being visible/invisible in various ways.
I was surprised that it was easier to gather a focus on the music when I was wearing a baroque dress: It was an eye-catcher, of course. But instead of taking attention away from what I really wanted to focus on – the music – I was able to bring their positive interest with me into the performance situation.
Maybe the dress worked as a uniform or costume – it signaled that I was part of the show, and thus okay to talk to.
When I put on my black concert dress, it was much harder to get in touch with people: They looked much more embarrassed when I approached them.

Tandeleyen 1, june 17th, 2012

It takes time to take in all aspects of a piece of music. In concerts the piece is played through once, and the audience is left without a chance to perceive all levels of understanding and nuances prepared by the performers through work over long time.

In this concert, we spent one hour presenting 15 minutes of music. Playing the pieces several times, we discussed with the audience the nuances produced by different approaches to the performance, and also by superimposing text to instrumental music. The text was both read aloud, and projected on to the wall.

We had many good comments from the audience, and I would like to thank all of them for their generosity.

The concept will be developed further, and new experiments will take place in the following months. Check the schedule here.

The concert was arranged in collaboration with Foreningen Antikk Musikk and Bymuseet i Bergen.