Block Beuys - Raum 1

for tape with 11 instrumentalists (1995)
24 minutes | no.16

Block Beuys - Raum 1 is, as its subtitle suggests, a 'solo' for tape with 'accompaniment' by 11 instrumentalists. The piece is to be performed without a conductor, all players perform with stopwatches. Since the performers (2 percussionists, 2 pianos & 7 strings) dispose of a certain amount of freedom as to where their musical material will be placed in time, every performance will differ in sound.

The walls, the ceiling and the floor of the first room of the Block Beuys (size: 125 m2) are omnipresent; these are represented by the tape which is a kind of 'continuum'. The actual objects in the first room are reflected by the 'fast' music as performed by the instrumentalists. Since there are only 5 objects present in the deserted first room, the players mostly colour the slow, monochrome music of the tape.

The tape (which consists of acoustic sounds only, namely bowed piano strings) was realised in the electronic studios of STEIM (Amsterdam) in close collaboration with Michel van der Aa (technique) and John Snijders (piano).

photo: Block Beuys, Raum 1 (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, 1990) by Claudio Abate

Scoring

tape-0.0.0.0-0.0.0.0-perc(2)-pf(2)-str(1.1.2.2.1)
(without conductor)

tape (solo)
percussion 1, percussion 2
piano 1, piano 2
2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, double bass

commissioned by

Rumori

written for

Ives Ensemble

dedicated to

Richard Ayres

première

17 December 1995
Frascati, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Ives Ensemble

Audio Fragments

Performance

Ives Ensemble

recording

4 May 2000, Maria Minor, Utrecht (Netherlands)
by Eclat Music Productions

Score Excerpts