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born in 1957 in Oslo, he received an all-round musical
education ranging from traditional classical training and early music to
jazz and avant-garde rock. He studied composition at the Norwegian State
Academy of Music (with Finn Mortensen and Olav Anton Thom-mesen) and the
University of California in San Diego (with Joji Yuasa, Roger Reynolds, and
Vinko Globokar).
His music covers a wide range of techniques and expressions, from strongly
intuitive music for dance and performance art to elaborate computer-aided
composition in his instrumental pieces.
His music is performed regularly worldwide.
Selected works (since 1984): Kaleidophony for four
trumpets, four horns, three trombones and tuba (1984), Changes for symphonic
band (1984), Purge for percussion and tape (1984–89), Mandala for two
pianos and two percussions (1985), Depart for tape and acting flautist (or
other instrumentalist) (1986), ...though what made it has gone for
mezzo-soprano and piano (1987), The Road between Water and Thirst
for tape (1987), Concertino for timpani and orchestra (1988), StrNk for tape
(1989), Onda di ghiaccio for chamber orchestra (1989), Stonewave for six
percussionists; also versions for three percussionists and percussion solo
(1990), Da-Ba-Da, ballet music for tape (1990), ning for oboe, English horn,
violin, viola and cello (1991), VÆrnatt, theatre music for tape (1992),
Solve et Coagula for flute/piccolo, alto flute, clarinet/bass clarinet,
percussion, piano and string quartet (1992), Too Much of a Good Thing for
six electric guitars and six percussionists (1993), Konsekvens for tape
(1993), Four Etudes for Piano (1993), Drei Gedichte von Rainer Maria Rilke
for soprano and piano (also version for mezzo-soprano and piano; 1994), Yo
for computer and controller
suit (1994), DrNmspel, music for a film by Unni Straume based on
A. Strindberg’s A Dream Play (1994), Appearances for chamber orchestra
(1995), Twine for xylophone and marimba (1995), Boyl for chamber orchestra
(1995), Ground for cello and 18 solo strings (1996), Concerto for Clarinet
and Orchestra (1996), Stream for solo timpani (1997), The Solitary Shame
Announced by a Piano, ballet music for tape (1997), SkjNr, ballet music for
tape (1997), Act for large orchestra (1998), Tides for six percussionists
and orchestra (1998), Frap for 2, 3 or four percussio-nists (1998), Chi for
orchestra (1991), Stream for solo cello (1999), LautLeben, radio opera for
female voice and 4-channel tape (1999), Se-ven Imperatives for piano solo
(2000), Phonotope 1 for string quartet and computer (2000), Four Places
Including Sjoa and SjÆk, ballet music for tape (2004).
Instalations, multimedia: So Far Unchanged for acting mixed choir and tape;
visual concept: Kjetil SkNien (1985), Crossroads, design and musical/theatrical
interlude for three jazz groups and two contemporary music ensembles (1988),
Diaphony, group composition with Alfred Janson and KÆre Kolberg, for four
wind band groups, bugle corps, four percussionists, eight actors/musicians
and tape; visual concept: Kjetil SkNien (1990), Scratch for balloon and live
electronics (1991), Lyddusj, sound installation for the Grieg anniversary
exibition (1993), Det tÆlmodige for tape, for an outdoor midnight
performance at a Bronze Age stone circle in Vestfold (1996), feelings,
installation with tv, Macintosh computer and Yamaha midi piano (2003).
Phonotope 1
The title of the piece is a travesty of the notion ‘biotope’. It
denotes
a small ecological area, in which the lives of different species of plants
and animals are dependent on each other, while the soil, the weather
conditions and so on form a finely balanced network. By analogy,
a ‘phonotope’ would be a musical ‘area’, with the
sounds taking the place of living creatures, dependent on each other and
interacting according to certain rules.
The piece has no score in the traditional meaning of the word. The parts for
individual musicians consist of five musical ‘games’, with small
fragments of musical material serving as ‘playing cards’, and
with a set of rules for each game. This allows the musicians a freedom of
choice within clearly defined limits.
In addition to this game between the musicians, there is a game between the
quartet and a computer, based on an ircam programme designed specifically
for this piece. It consists partly in transforming the sounds from the
musicians in real time, partly in playing pre-composed sound files based on
recorded sounds from the quartet.
The central formal idea is the interaction between five distinct musical
materials, which constitute sonic descriptions of the five elements in
traditional Chinese thinking: Wood, Metal, Water, Fire and Earth. The piece
consists of five extended parts, each of which is dominated by a middle
section, the ‘game’, which focuses on one of the elements. Each
part starts with a short computer sound introduction and ends with a
relaxation. The element in focus in these sections is determined according
to the Chinese system of thought on how the elements consume each other or
transform into one another.
Phonotope 1 was commissioned by ircam and the ‘Ultima’
Contemporary Music Festival in Oslo. It was written for and in collaboration
with the Arditti Quartet.
Rolf Wallin
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