The final distribution study is being performed today at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Olaf Nicolai commissioned twelve composers to write pieces to be performed by the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart on the steps of the museum on twelve Sundays in 2011 through his project Escalier du Chant. I decided to make one piece for each month. All of the pieces involved distributing copies of the scores to visitors who could then take them away and perform them elsewhere. In the earlier pieces, this involved passing limited-edition copies of the score to other people as part of a sequence, with individual, personal performances initiating this exchange. The later pieces have followed this principle, but are more open with regard to the copying and distribution of scores. For each piece, performances are tracked via submissions made to the project website, with maps showing where the pieces are performed.
There’s some documentation at the website we made for my piece, as well as further information about the whole project, together with some recordings, at the Escalier du Chant site.
If you’ve been given a copy of one of the scores, please do follow the instructions and perform the piece, then distribute the score. Although it puts a time limit on the updates, I’m going to let this run indefinitely to see what happens.
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