This piece is a short "translation" of Gerhard Richter's stained glass window for the Cologne Cathedral. Following that metaphor, the "light" to be refracted is the 50 Hz hum from two unplugged electric guitar cables, massively amplified. The rest of the ensemble treats the spectrum of this hum as a static pitch field, tracing individual lines through it in a rigid grid of even 16th notes (à la Ablinger's "Quadraturen"). Thus an individual, fixed-register pitch may be repeated 8 times within a single bar by 8 different instruments (i.e. 8 different colors).One funny note: as 50 Hz is the voltage standard for continental Europe, and not the U.S., the current recording is the "European version" of the piece. In the U.S., the guitar cables would hum at 60 Hz, necessitating that the entire piece be transposed up by a major 3rd. Ha.
Written for the orkest 'de ereprijs', for the 2008 Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
instrumentation: 2 fl., cl., sop.sax, bari.sax, horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, electric guitar, bass guitar, percussion, piano, 2 voices
duration: 3'
date: 2008
performance history: 2.23.08- orkest 'de ereprjis', Podium Gigant, Apeldoorn, NL
