Arrangements 2021-2022

This arrangement started with a simple assumption: as the piece is built as two accumulative multilayer crescendos, it might be possible, with the correct arrangement, to allow the live instruments to play and record the new lines as they appear and use the previously recorded material to allow the buildup of the multiline crescendo. This speculation required a complete analysis of the score, strategic planning, engraving of the unreadable handwritten score, arrangement of a matching noted score and automated live electronics processes, fine tweaking of the live electronics, and, of course, allowing the ensemble time and stability of the system to produce an artistically viable result.

While spending the many hours needed to produce this arrangement, about two months of work, many ideas came to mind: this piece sounds already “old” and after 40 years, its aesthetics and dynamics are well explored; this new arrangement for a trio and live electronics allowed an excellent revision confronting near past with present aesthetics and ideas. If before it was many people “trapped” in this long and “pointless journey,” now it’s few who are trying to make something but are now trapped in the hands of technologies, if with the acoustic version, it was all about the human interaction, now it is also about interacting with the electronic traces of self and the others if before the memory could be more forgiving, now any tiny mistake hunts your endlessly and so on.

I am very thankful to my two partners in the ensemble: Denis Sobolev and Dan Weinstein, for being supportive during this long and demanding process, for allowing me time and patience to repair during rehearsals the mistakes made during the preparation stage, and finally, for the courage to take this to the stage even though not all were secured and stable.