Premiered at Bowdoin International Music Festival 2019
Ela Kodzas-Violin, Ethan Schlenker-Cello, Braden Vaughn and Jonas Koh-Percussion, Daniel De Togni-Shakuhachi/Electronics
Ela Kodzas-Violin, Ethan Schlenker-Cello, Braden Vaughn and Jonas Koh-Percussion, Daniel De Togni-Shakuhachi/Electronics
Unbreakable: Music for Big Spaces was written for the beautiful architecture of the rotunda in the Bowdoin Museum of Art.
With its dizzying seven-second reverb and Greco-Roman statues, the atmosphere is that of a calm stillness that yet still evokes movement in its architecture. The title references the ancient statues displayed throughout the round. Even though they are missing bits and pieces of themselves, their inherent beauty remains unbroken.
The beginning of the piece incorporates a shakuhachi solo which later comes back in the electronics, processed and now contained in a new context (a different musical container). Much like how this piece plays with the ambient space around the musical material, it also uses the relationship between the shakuhachi and electronics as a conversation on the musical containers in which we display ideas (live vs. recorded vs. processed).
The piece ends with a slow dance, which imitates the striking still-life of the statues placed around the rotunda. By the end of the performance, everything is engulfed and erased by electronic noise.
With its dizzying seven-second reverb and Greco-Roman statues, the atmosphere is that of a calm stillness that yet still evokes movement in its architecture. The title references the ancient statues displayed throughout the round. Even though they are missing bits and pieces of themselves, their inherent beauty remains unbroken.
The beginning of the piece incorporates a shakuhachi solo which later comes back in the electronics, processed and now contained in a new context (a different musical container). Much like how this piece plays with the ambient space around the musical material, it also uses the relationship between the shakuhachi and electronics as a conversation on the musical containers in which we display ideas (live vs. recorded vs. processed).
The piece ends with a slow dance, which imitates the striking still-life of the statues placed around the rotunda. By the end of the performance, everything is engulfed and erased by electronic noise.