Landscape with figures II
Ensemble text
Finnegans wake by James Joyce introduced frequent hybrid words and ambiguities of language. In Landscape with figures II, this novel was used as a huge reservoir of texts.
The Ensemble text fragments draw sounds from a passage with musical descriptions. The pathos implied by the text is contradicted by the music, through whispering, brushed Tam-tams, and a soundfield recording of ventilation sounds.[1] Whispering through the instruments distort the text, especially through the narrow embouchure of a contrabassoon.[2]
AJ Ensemble text 1.
Ensemble text 2 uses the same text. Instead of being spoken, the text is being "written" with sticks over the surfaces of percussion instruments.[3] The text has been translated to gesture, through the action of writing.
Ensemble text 2, Huddersfield.
[2] Speaking through the instrument has been used in works by Helmut Lachenmann, for instance Accanto for clarinet and orchestra. http://www.breitkopf.com
