Musical Compositions

Setting	Prepared string quartet.
Period of creation	2010-07-07 to 2010-09-18, revision: 2012-06-12 to 18.
Duration	12 min.
Commission / occasion	Commissioned by the Music and Art Around Festival 2010 in Copenhagen-Malmö (Den/Swe).
Publisher	BabelScores.

The main idea behind the piece is to invite the imagination of both musicians and listeners to a fantastic journey or pilgrimage, be it an outer journey to some wondrous place or an inner journey to the miracles of our inner lives.
At the same time, the work can be regarded as a fantastic or visionary pilgrimage to the rich extended sound world of the pre­pared string quartet involving a large variety of different musical characters, climaxes, anticlimaxes and surprises, as a result of the work­ing process by the com­poser feeling his way through the wild jungle of the untamed sonic ma­te­ri­al. The relation of the French title Pèlerinage Fantas­tique to the two great romantic masters Franz Liszt (Années de Pèlerinage) and Hec­tor Berlioz (Symphonie Fan­tastique) thus con­cerns both their deep and optimistic belief in musical progress as well as their idea of programme music, whereas there is no ex­plic­it programme in this piece beyond the above-mentioned.
In case the string quartet players surround the audience during the performance, the pilgrimage can also be regarded as a journey to the acoustic characteristics of the room.

On a more technical musical level the composition undergoes a timbral pilgrimage in 3 equally long parts from discontinuous, per­cus­sive and re­pet­i­tive to continuous and sus­tained sounds. The 1^st part on the one hand mainly exposes plucked and struck sounds (piz­zicato, bat­tuto) and thus em­bod­ies the timbral discontinuities. The 3^rd part on the other hand basically presents bowed sounds (trat­to), i.e. the timbral continuities. The predominant sounds of the 2^nd part, bowed sounds obtained either through high bowing pressure or by unconventional sound pro­duc­ing means, can be perceived as repetitive continuities or continuous repetitions. Thus they serve as a timbral link in macroform between parts 1 and 3.
In microform, 3 more links between the 3 parts can be recognized: Firstly, all 3 parts start and end with and include insertions of a 4^th musical structure which grow longer and longer to the end of the piece: the playing with a bam­boo knitting needle wo­ven through the strings. While the needle is solely “bowed” in the beginning of part 1, its treatment more and more comprises vi­brant plucking attacks. This development from continuities to dis­con­ti­nuities creates tension in relation to the opposite process in macrofrom.
Secondly, all 3 parts contain insertions of musical material from the respective 2 other parts. These in­ser­tions are longest in the close neigh­bourhood to their origin and shortest in the greatest distance to it.
Thirdly, in accordance with the silent and mysterious beginning and ending of the bowed knitting needle, all 3 parts reach their dy­nam­ic climaxes quite exactly in their respective middles.
The performance begins when the musicians start to “insert” the knitting needles into their instruments by threading them through the strings. The piece is over when the players simultaneously pull out the knitting needles from the strings evoking the idea of total standstill and silence.

2014-12-26	Mivos Quartet Broadcast/streaming on ABC Classic FM / New Music Up Late (Aus) at 22.30 h, live recording from 2014-04-21 (MATA Festival – amplified)
2014-05-25	Mivos Quartet Broadcast/streaming on WQXR Q2 Music / Living Music. Living Composers (USA), live recording from 2014-04-21 (MATA Festival – amplified)
2014-04-21	Mivos Quartet 2014 MATA Festival, at The Kitchen in New York (USA), live interview with Todd Tarantino, radio recording by WQXR Q2 Music and ABC Classic FM (Aus) – amplified
2013-11-09	Mivos Quartet Wien Modern Festival 2013, at the Alte Schmiede in Vienna (Aut)
2012-12-17	Kairos Quar­tet Solitär (Mozarteum University) in Salzburg (Aut) – cancelled
2012-07-26	Mivos Quartet 46th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt / Orangerie (Ger), coaching by Uli Fussenegger, audio recording by MBM Mielke Bergfeld Musikproduktion / Darmstadt – amplified
2011-08-24	Kairos Quar­tet UNM fes­ti­val (Young Nordic Music) 2011, at the Royal Danish Academy of Music / Studio Hall in Copen­ha­gen (Den)
2011-03-15	Kairos Quartet Broadcast (excerpt) on ORF Ö1 Radio / Zeit-Ton (Aut) at 23.03 h, live recording from 2011-03-12 (Schömer-Haus), with an introduction by Ursula Strubinsky
2011-03-13	Kairos Quartet Video broad­cast (excerpt) on YouTube.com / Musik im Essl Museum: ZEITKLANG: Kairos Quartett (Aut), live recording from 2011-03-12 / dress rehearsal (Schömer-Haus)
2011-03-13	Kairos Quartet Bürgerspital / arts centre in Sankt Veit an der Glan (Aut)
2011-03-12	Kairos Quartet Schömer-Haus in Klosterneuburg near Vienna (Aut), final concert, radio recording by ORF Ö1 – world premiere
2011-03-09	Kairos Quartet St. Jacobi Church / parish hall / Oranienstraße 132 in Berlin (Ger) – pre-concert
2010-10-27	Arditti String Quar­tet Music and Art Around Festival 2010, Inter Arts Center in Malmö (Swe) – recording

1,18%	Selection by the Mivos Quartet New York for their concert at the 46th International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt (Ger), 1 of 85 entries (2012-04).
2,89%	Selection for the 2014 MATA Festival in New York (USA), 19/658 (2013-07).
5,38%	Scholarship from the 46th International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt (Ger), 7/130 (2012-04).
6,94%	Finalist and awardee at ZEITklang competition 2011 (Aut), 5/72 (2011-03).
12,96%	Selection for the festival UNM (Young Nordic Music) 2011, 7/54 (2011-01).

View reviews.

View score example.

Kairos Quar­tet;
Klosterneuburg 2011-03-12;
bars 1-5, 35-38, 51-54, 93-96, 102-105, 161-166;
duration: 2 min.

Mivos Quartet;
Darmstadt 2012-07-26;
bars 1-5, 35-38, 51-54, 93-96, 102-105, 161-166;
duration: 1 min 58 sec.