GIORGIO NETTI necessità d’interrogare il cielo ALWYNNE PRITCHARD (*1968)

1 Loser (2014) 09:28  2 March, March, March (2013) 05:41

3 Decoy (2004) 19:03

4 Rockaby (2016) 11:57

5 Graffiti (2006) 13:49

6 Glorvina (2012) 03:20 1 Klaus Steffes-Holländer, piano / voice / objects 7 Irene Electric (2013) 13:03 2 The Norwegian Naval Forces’ Band Bjarte Engeset, conductor 3 ensemble recherche TT 76:00 SWR Experimentalstudio 4 Alwynne Pritchard, voice / movement BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Ilan Volkov, conductor 5 , percussion SWR Experimentalstudio 6 SWR Experimentalstudio 7 Victoria Johnson, violin Thorolf Thuestad, electronics Children from the Philippine High School for the Arts, voices

2 3 Design: Lisa Simpson

4 5 Gun on the Table thing follows another (the swipe and the devised by the sixteenth-century occultist and Glenn Gould in 1953 launches the stu- thud), joined by a physical force (gravity). Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa to represent the dents into self-destructive spirals of inade- More things follow, and somehow, they must Sun. Another kind of translation takes place quacy and anxiety. There are Gouldisms in be related too. The pianist coughs five times in Graffiti for percussion and electronics: the Pritchard’s score: it concludes with a desic- (should we read this as embarrassment?) sounds of drums are transformed into those cated reworking of Bach’s Goldberg Varia- before launching, unexpectedly, into a de- of gongs. The drums are played through a tion no. 30 (the piece Gould played at that ranged and dissonant riff that vaults across loudspeaker set-up whose soundwaves ac- fictional meeting). Gould’s devotion to tech- the entire keyboard. tivate two large gongs and a tam-tam; these nology is ironically represented, in the form sounds in turn are transformed through con- of a karaoke machine and a noisily skipping Alwynne Pritchard: I like that you notice tact mics and live electronics. CD. And, of course, the pianist is asked to these things. Actually, I’ve revised the score whistle. Wertheimer’s travails (it is he who so you don’t see the bag: the piece should AP: I have a need for extreme order in every- Gould names “the loser”, and who eventually now be performed behind a curtain so on- thing I do. So these very organised things takes his own life) are conveyed in the cries, ly the pianist’s ankles are visible. You use that I set up are a way to escape that. They’re coughs and strangled expression of the vo- the word embarrassment, and I think part- like booby traps, or they’re like the box and cal part, the bag of sand knocked angrily to A telling moment comes about two min- ly concealing the pianist, like a bather in a I’m the jack coming out of the box. The ear- the floor, perhaps even the comically inad- utes into Alwynne Pritchard’s Loser, for pi- changing room, adds to this mood; some- ly pieces are only the box, I think, and now I equate sound of a small, battery-powered ano, voice and objects. A cluster of keys is thing is being partly concealed from the pub- make these structures that I can then burst milk frother attempting to play along with silently depressed, the piano’s hammers lift- lic but of course it is also being partly ex- out of or I can have the performers burst out the real Bach at the end. ing to let the strings resonate sympathet- posed. There’s something funny and sad of; it’s full of unpredictable energy, it’s funny, ically. A small bag of sand is used to hold about that. Naked ankles are funny and sad but still there are these contradictory forces Writings by others inform several of the them in place. The bag is open, we notice, in themselves! and this obsessive need to control. … I think works on this disc: not only Loser, but al- as it perches precariously on the keyboard’s already in Graffiti it’s using the electronics to so Rockaby (after Samuel Beckett’s play) edge. We can feel its weight, a ball of poten- Connections and contradictions, empiri- break out of the extreme order of the per- and Glorvina (after a novel by the early nine- tial energy, over which the pianist’s hands cal and esoteric, run throughout Pritchard’s cussion part. It’s that first cry for freedom. teenth-century Irish author Sydney, Lady continue to play. music. Decoy, for ensemble and electronics, Morgan). Yet although Pritchard’s works fre- derives its form and rhythmic structure from In Loser the pianist speaks short extracts quently echo aspects of them, in no sense Suddenly, the spell is broken. With a swipe a six-by-six magic square (using the num- from Thomas Bernhard’s 1983 novel Der are they depictions: her sources serve more of the hand, the pianist casts the bag onto bers 1 to 36). This act of pragmatic trans- Untergeher, in which a youthful encoun- to activate a field of thematic possibilities the ground. It lands with a squelching thud, lation has roots in another, more mystical ter between two piano students (Bern- than to circumscribe a palette of ideas and its contents spilling across the floor. One one, since the square is identical with that hard’s narrator and his friend Wertheimer) images.

6 7 Rockaby is perhaps the most complex work visible to the audience. But I’m wondering if reaching its lowest point seventy semitones suals are brought together and interrelat- here. Written for orchestra and vocal per- that should be the case in future. Maybe I will down the scale at the word “somewhere”. ed. The work’s rhythms, pitches and text are former it also calls for two foley artists and also hang a curtain in front of them, so that (In fact, Beckett’s play contains 108 differ- all derived from the preface to St Claire; or, a prominent (although not virtuoso) pianist. only the top of their heads and a strip low- ent words, more than the piano’s keyboard The Heiress of Desmond, by the early nine- In addition, the vocal performer is required er down is visible, revealing some hint – noth- could accommodate, but Pritchard avoids teenth-century Irish author Sydney, Lady to wear an elaborate, custom-made cos- ing more – of what they’re doing, the objects this problem by not setting its fourth and fi- Morgan (who was nicknamed Glorvina af- tume – equal parts geisha, crazed steam- they’re using. It could be more intriguing, less nal scene.) ter the heroine of her most famous book, punk inventor and military commander – that demonstrative that way. I don’t know. Very The Wild Irish Girl), and the piece was writ- is transformed throughout the course of the often with my pieces I feel as though there TR-J: Was part of the appeal of the Beckett ten to be listened to in front of her bust, piece by way of zips, hidden panels and vel- are a number of alternative possibilities. Cer- text this in-built clock-ness? which is held in London’s Victoria and Albert cro strips. The resulting work is therefore tainly, with pieces where there are these pro- Museum. a rich mix of words, music, sound effects, cesses that are theatrical, let’s say. They can AP: Absolutely. Also, reading it I thought you dance and textile art, with all the sensual be directed differently each time. could do a very simple note-by-note tran- Returning to Rockaby: Beckett’s recursive, depth and polyphony that this implies. scription of this and it would be very effec- repetition-laden script echoes the rock back The choice of Beckett’s Rockaby is sugges- tive but much longer. If I hadn’t been told and forth of the old woman’s chair. The pia- Tim Rutherford-Johnson: What you’re do- tive: the playwright’s image of a dying wom- that my piece was longer than it had to be, no part of Pritchard’s piece drains that text ing with the curtain in Loser is almost an in- an in her rocking chair offers another col- I would have set the final scene. It was real- of linguistic content but highlights its inter- version of the foley idea in Rockaby. Foley is lision between human being and gravity. ly pragmatic. nal patterns. Against this relatively regular about using things that sound like something Pritchard’s vocal text is not taken from Beck- framework Pritchard’s performance is angry, else, and in Rockaby you’re actually showing ett, however, but is made up of fragments TR-J: I counted them up – you would have even vengeful (“The demands of your ambi- what’s going on, breaking bits of celery and assembled from readings of Cervantes, run out of notes! tion / … And it shall be so reverenced by my so on. Moshé Feldenkrais (founder of the Felden- own / My will / To you / Submissively I mould”) – krais Method for increasing self-awareness AP: I think I could have found a way around a great contrast to the existential resigna- AP: Yes. Just to clarify, celery is used by fo- through movement) and the psychologist going off the bottom of the piano. There tion of Beckett’s woman (“till in the end/the ley artists to create the sound effect of a Daniel Stern (author of Forms of Vitality). would probably have been a way. day came/in the end came/close of a long nose being broken, of bone being crushed. Beckett’s text, meanwhile, is translated into day”). Again, we are invited to make a con- I expanded these kinds of conventional foley the piano part, using a simple cryptograph- A similar act of translation takes place in nection: is this the other half of the wom- effects with, for example, the sound of scrap- ic technique in which each new word is as- Glorvina. This short electronic piece was an’s story? The part that Beckett chose not ing metal, to build a sort of hybrid sound ef- signed to the next note down on the chro- composed as part of a London “Music to show us, but that might be hidden behind fect palette for my costume as it moves. And matic scale, starting with the fourth A above Walk” that marked John Cage’s centena- the shocking “fuck life” (words 107 and 108) everything the live foley artists are doing is middle C (the play’s first word: “More”) and ry in 2012. Once again, words, music and vi- at the very end of his play?

8 9 TR-J: Texts haunt many of the works on this in New York City. This was the summer of ­between this moment and that, between a humid and stormy weather in the Philippines, disc. At one stage wasn’t there also going to hurricane Irene. Pritchard’s apartment was desire inspired in the audience and its res- all sounds, texts and materials here yield to be a vocal part to March, March, March as in a designated Red (ie danger) Zone: she olution. If there is a gun on the table in Act 1, motion, decay and transformation. well? describes being paralysed with fear by the wisdom has it, someone has to fire it in Act 5. hype and anxiety and electricity in the air. A In the second half of Irene Electric (tam-tam AP: I want to hear the process of investiga- AP: March, March, March was originally year later she was in a wooden hut in a Phil- rings sympathetically, cloth falls away, bag tion. This dynamic of exploration, of investi- composed as it’s presented here – for na- ippine rainforest, undertaking a residency at drops to the floor) the violinist comes to the gating how to get out of something, or how vy band alone. But since writing it, I’ve imag- the Philippine High School for the Arts. Un- front of the stage, lights the two candles to let go of something for a moment – where ined a vocal part (with an American accent), der conditions of extreme heat and humidi- and sits in the second chair, the violin rest- do you go, how do you reassess, how do you part spoken, part sprechgesang, some- ty life here had adapted to the inevitability of ing on her knee. rebuild … All of that, I like that. For me that’s where between a crazed (but very sup- change and decay. Inspired by the “unique music. pressed) political rant and a teenager gos- lyricism” she heard in the voices of the stu- In many ways it is a simple gesture, theatre siping on the telephone. Think Donald Trump dents with whom she was working, she com- reduced almost to the banal (although Beck- This text combines notes by meets ­Janice from Friends meets Sergeant piled a tape part from their words that cap- ett would probably disagree). Yet it speaks Tim Rutherford-Johnson, ­Hartman from Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal tured both the grounded organicism of the to Pritchard’s fascination with connecting written in February 2018, and Jacket” meets Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire­ ! Philippines and the tension of New York. things that is the source of her music’s dra- transcriptions from a conversation And Frank Zappa is in on this conversation matic potency. Neither Hurricane Irene nor around those notes with in my head too. We had a recording session The work is structured in two parts. The first the Philippine rainforest are depicted overtly, Alwynne Pritchard, recorded in and I made several versions, intending to establishes the dramatic tension. The vio- but elements of both are present. In the first March 2018 present the piece with vocal part here, but linist sits with her back to the audience. An- section of the piece, the taut, breathless vio- somehow, I couldn’t make it work. I’d still like other chair faces the front. An unlit candle lin sound coupled with the statements made to try it in live performance, but for this re- stands on either side. The situation is one of by the Philippine students (they simply an- cording I invite listeners to contribute their yet to be realised potential. (A loudspeaker nounce their names and the cities in which own theatre of voices (imagined or out loud – is placed behind a tam-tam. A performer is they were born) captures the physical, cog- it’s up to you!). wrapped within a costume of zips and vel- nitive and psychological tension, the stasis cro. An open bag of sand rests on a piano (like a kind of static electrical hum) that was At the heart of Irene Electric, for violin and keyboard.) Pritchard’s experience of the storm in New tape, are not so much texts and language, al- York City. By comparison, in the second sec- though these also figure prominently, but the Theatre is, like translation, an art of con- tion, dream and fantasy texts are intertwined piece’s origin in two particular and very dif- nection-making, between text and perfor- as the tuning pegs of the violin are gradually ferent locales. Pritchard began work in 2011 mance, between performance and audience, released. Like Pritchard’s experience of the

10 11 ALWYNNE PRITCHARD at the SWR Experimentalstudio in Freiburg in 2006, for the Donaueschingen Musik- tage, was awarded the special prize given by Alwynne Pritchard is a British composer, vo- the Foundation Ton Bruynèl, STEIM and the calist and performer whose work explores Foundation GAUDEAMUS. In 2016, she was relationships between musical expression awarded the commission to create a fan- and the human voice and body. She has ap- fare or “marker” to celebrate the opening of peared as an actor, vocalist and physical Snøhetta’s building for the University of Ber- performer in stage productions, as well as gen’s newly created Department of Art, Mu- directing and developing choreography for sic and Design, for which she created the her work. In 2015, she formed the music-the- book of text scores, up without an insistent atre company Neither Nor with Thorolf casting away. Thuestad. As a performer, projects include her own As a teenager, Alwynne’s first composition Vitality Forms solo vocal/physical pieces teacher was her father, Gwyn Pritchard. She and the ongoing series of DOG/GOD com- then went on to study composition with Rob- missions, launched at the Bergen Interna- ert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music tional Festival in 2015 with works created and Drama and with Melanie Daiken, Justin for her by, among others, Vinko Globokar, Connolly and Michael Finnissy at the Royal , Gerhard Stäbler, Trond Re- Academy of Music in London. Her PhD at the inholdtsen, François Sarhan and Felix Kubin. University of Bristol, which she diverted mid- Alwynne also performs frequently as an im- way from musicology (looking at the music of proviser. Her professional life has included ) to composition, was su- stints as a writer and presenter for BBC Ra- pervised by Professor Jonathan Cross. While dio, a composition teacher at Trinity College at the Academy, Alwynne also studied voice of Music in London and as Artistic Director privately with mezzo-soprano Linda Hirst. of both the Borealis festival and BIT20 En- semble in Bergen, Norway. Alwynne has composed for, and performed with, leading musicians and ensembles Alwynne is managed by Maestro Arts, and

Dress: Kira Massara Kira Dress: across the globe. Her work Decoy, created her music is published by Verlag .

12 13 Recording dates: 1 30 Sep 2016, 2 14 Nov 2018, 2 was commissioned by 3 15–16 Oct 2004, 4 8 May 2016, The Norwegian Naval Forces’ Band for 5 7 Jan 2007, 6 2012, 7 2012–2013 The Brasswind Festival in 2013, with funds from Recording venues: 1 Hans Rosbaud Studio SWR, Baden-Baden/Germany, Det Norske Komponistfond. 2 Bergenhus Fortress Music Hall, Bergen/Norway, 3 Gewerbliche Schulen, Donaueschingen/Germany, 4 City Halls, Glasgow/UK, 5 Heinrich-Strobel-Saal, SWR Studio, Freiburg/Germany, 6 Experimentalstudio, SWR Studio, Freiburg/Germany, 7 Østre, Bergen/Norway Engineers: 1 Norbert Vossen, 2 Thorolf Thuestad, Alwynne Pritchard, 3 Wolfgang Wilbs, Helmut Hanusch, 4 Graeme Taylor, 5 Manuel Braun, 6 Thomas Hummel, Alwynne Pritchard, 7 Thorolf Thuestad Producers: 1 3 5 Südwestrundfunk, 2 Thorolf Thuestad, Alwynne Pritchard, 4 Andrew Trinick, 6 Thomas Hummel, Alwynne Pritchard, 7 Thorolf Thuestad, Alwynne Pritchard 0015047KAI a production of Publisher: 1 2 3 4 5 Verlag Neue Musik 1 5 6 licensed by SWR Media Services GmbH ℗ 2019 BBC 4 & 2019 paladino media gmbh, Vienna Booklet Text: Tim Rutherford-Johnson © 2019 paladino media gmbh, Vienna Photos: Thor Brødreskift, Alwynne Pritchard www.kairos-music.com Cover: Detail of Mahoe by Jeff Thomson, photographed by Martin Rummel LC 10488

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