Anna Thorvaldsdottir is Icelandic composer known for her use of slowly evolving textures to create “landscapes” of sound. She’s worked with many wonderful ensembles such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Spectral Quartet. I would put her music somewhere between George Crumb and John Luther Adams. Her scores have the intricacies and clarity of Crumb, and the slow evolving textures of Adams, but with her own unique spin.
Something I found interesting about her scores is that she
provides the same paragraph in almost all of her performance notes.
When you see a long sustained pitch, think of it as a fragile flower that you need to carry in your hands and walk the distance on a thin rope without dropping it or falling. It is a way of measuring time and noticing the tiny changes that happen as you walk further along the same thin rope. Absolute tranquility with the necessary amount of concentration needed to perform the task.
Her piece Ró, which translates to tranquility or stillness, was written in 2013. What I like about this piece in particular is how she approaches pitch and harmony. For her, harmony is not something that she approaches functionally, but as another aspect of timbre and color.
"My music is written as an ecosystem of materials that are carried from one performer – or group of performers – to the next throughout the process of the work. As you play a phrase, harmony, texture or lyrical line it is being delivered to you, passed on from another performer – performers – for you to carry on until it is delivered to another. All materials continuously grow in and out of each other, growing and transforming throughout the process."
I feel that she is fully aware that what the musicians see on the page does a very poor job at explaining their role in the piece, especially when musical material gets passed around so much. I believe that she includes these various explanations of her music in the scores to help performers get a sense of what their role may be, but more importantly to help them understand the feel of her music.
The last piece I am going to share is a recent commission by the Berlin Philharmonic entitled Catamorphosis, which portraits our fragile relationship with our planet.
Listen to the excerpt Here
I love the quotes you included here. In our studies this semester I've been noticing several composers who are very conscious about sound and timbre and expertly transfer musical lines from one instrumentation to another so that they seem to be one instrument only, changing timbre as it moves. I can hear this same idea in her works. The sound of a flute can turn suddenly into the sound of a violin with a few puffs of air or throbs of electronics. Thank you for sharing this music!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate performance notes like the ones you shared here. They are so evocative and really give the performer an idea of what the composer is intending without being too prescriptive. Sometimes, composers can give very detailed performance notes which are helpful, but often limit the interpretive possibilities of the work. By giving these kinds of notes, the composer is giving the performers an opportunity to explore the kinds of sounds they can make which will achieve her musical goals.
ReplyDeleteWow! I love her soundscape. When I was listening to the "Ró" I thought that it would be a great movie music. After searching some information about the composer I found out that she wrote music to mini-series "Chornobyl" and won GRAMMY award for that! Also, she wrote a score for the film "Joker". What a find! I love her stark harmonies and emphasis on low instruments!
ReplyDelete-Diana C.
I find it really interesting that this composer describes "seeing" the pitch in her first quote. I'm curious to see (pun not intended) whether her use of timbre and color for driving harmony might also be more understood by "seeing."
ReplyDeleteJO
Hi, Jacob! It was really interesting to learn about this composer. I like the program notes that you included at the beginning. I think the way she describes her music is very effective. An audience member who comes in expecting music that is more "mainstream" might better understand her intentions after reading these program notes. It's also really impressive that she produced the album on her own. I can't imagine how much work that was. Thanks for sharing! -- Noah Ward
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob! I love that you shared a composer who has such a specific sound to her music. I think it's interesting that she approaches harmony as a timbre or color because it is different than how we are traditionally taught to think about harmony. Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteLianna
Jacob, The performance notes included are great! I love that concept and I think its one that we don't hear too often in music today in general. It incites not only a new way of listening and performing but a different way of interacting with the environment around us. These soundscapes that she creates may be specific to Iceland, however I think the awareness they create can be carried outside of it.
ReplyDelete- Stephen
Hi Jacob! This composers sound is quite distinct but i like how you described two other composers sounds that can make up hers, it is a very good comparison. Although this style of music isn't what I'd initially lean towards i like how her quotes go along with her music which makes listening to it easier knowing what she wants us to gain from it. Thank you for sharing!- Lydia Young
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob! Her music is very captivating and really does evoke a feeling of vastness and a large-scale "landscape." Her performance notes are very helpful in articulating a very specific vision and provide so much insight into exactly how she wants something to be portrayed. Looking at the score for Catamorphosis, her performance notes are quite detailed and give so much context and meat for performers to chew on. Really enjoyable listen.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love the music of Thorvaldsdottir! Her works are unbelievably detailed which I especially appreciate. I enjoyed the comparisons to Crumb and Adams, definitely makes a lot of sense when you frame it that way. Thanks for posting! -Zack T
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