20 Etudes for 20 Etudes

Twenty real-time parameter-driven visualizations for Philip Glass’s Twenty Etudes for Piano performed by Maki Namekawa

The visualizations can be considered as etudes themselves, exploring visual and time-based relationships between basic topics like pattern and form, symbol and language as well as time and space, motion and position. Most of the pieces work with real-time-generated CGI, with a strong and immediate response to the music based on a comprehensive analysis of the audio signal from two microphones close to the piano. Some are combinations of CGI with photography or video and two use only video but with variations in the playback speed and the triggering of cue points controlled by the live music.

The visualizations, quite like the etudes themselves, have not been developed in their numerical sequence, but when we started to perform the complete etudes most visualizations were modified and some were completely remade to create a more intuitive flow.

The complete set of all twenty visualized etudes was premiered in February 2017 at National Sawdust, New York.

Linz Becomes a Seaport

The fateful voyage of the Pequod, the whaling ship whose Captain Ahab was driven by blind hate to hunt down a white sperm whale, will be performed in a theatrical form that conveys all of the work’s drama and philosophy. The proximity to water and the far-fetched possibility that Moby Dick could have wended his way upriver as far as Linz impart a very special appeal to this production with a local hook. The events played out on the water will be duplicated on land in terms of a performance and visuals that make them comprehensible to the huge audience assembled here. Modern dance and the acrobatic moves by trained gymnasts are the means of expression for a cast of about 100 performers. Before the eyes of Klangwolke spectators, Ahab’s madness manifests itself in a climactic confrontation with his arch enemy, Moby Dick. This production takes spectators on a journey overseas and back to Linz again.

Music and Narrator

This performance is musically based on Ahab!, an orchestral work by American composer Stephen Melillo. Written for an orchestra of wind instruments and a narrator, this piece powerfully underscores the unbending will of a man struggling against God and the whale. Playing Ahab and narrating as well is none other than Christian Brückner, a Grimme Award winner and the voice of Robert De Niro in German versions of the American actor’s films.

“Melville’s text has preoccupied me at least half my life. Recreating it in this extraordinary setting is a fantastic assignment.”

The Fireworks

This year’s fireworks are a substantive element of the production, a means of expression employed intentionally to create powerful imagery. Pyrotechnic effects intensify several of the scenes, culminating in the finale of a shipwreck accompanied by violent explosions.

After-party

Immediately following the 2017 Sparkasse OÖ Klangwolke, Linz AG cordially invites visitors to keep the extravaganza going in Sandburg and the Donaupark. Providing the music at the Linz AG Nachklangwolke is Eugene the Cat.

Credits

Design: Helix Event Inszenierungen
Director, choreographer: Christine Maria Krenn
Producer: Roland Krenn
Technical director: Helmut Scheiber

Sponsors: Sparkasse OÖ, Linz AG, Wiener Städtische Versicherung, Lentia City, VICOM, Austrian Federal Chancellery, Design Center Linz, The City of Linz, ORF—Austria Broadcasting Company—Upper Austria regional studio, OÖ Nachrichten, Kronen Zeitung OÖ, LIVA, Brucknerhaus Linz

http://www.helix.co.at
http://www.klangwolke.at

The participants can experience fluctuations in bitcoin values via sound and images in real time and interact with an automated transaction algorithm enabling them to manage bets and receive virtual payments according to their bet. In doing so the installation also raises critical questions about contemporary finance and trading systems.

Credits

Chains was developed at ZKM of Karlsruhe, Germany and was exhibited at GLOBALE: New Sensorium. It is an evolved version of the 2013 traders installation that was developed as a follow-up project and visualized Tokyo’s stock market live.

“A composer cannot view the world in which he lives with indifference. Human suffering, oppression, injustice . . . all that comes to me in my thoughts. Where there is pain, where there is injustice, I want to have my say through my music.” – Isang Yun, 1983

The real-time visualization of this piece has its point of departure in visual associations with the sheet music, and rises up into a complex geometric structure, the individual elements of which are then infused with dynamic movement by parameters derived directly from the live sound of the piano—like a huge high-rise complex or construction plans for a futuristic urban machine that, with passages becoming softer and softer, descends into a dark nocturnal mood, from the depths of which tonal colorations and elements evocative of Asian calligraphy repeatedly emerge. Three of Philip Glass’s 20 Etudes for Piano will be performed as a sort of teaser for the big solo concert on Monday.

FRI Sept. 8, 2017

FRI Sept. 8, 2017, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM

Infos

Meeting Point: POSTCITY WE GUIDE YOU Meeting Point
Duration: 90 Minutes
Language: German / English
Age of participants: 16–25 years (limited to max. 20 persons)
Price: free of charge for festival pass or day pass owners