I’ve nearly sorted out my piece for Ictus for this year’s Donaueschinger Musiktage after a few months of failing to make decisions. That is, of course, the fun part though. The piece continues the use of samples and words as cues that I began in like you and like you, and my recent orchestra piece alternate between attention and ease. This time there are eight players, each of whom have a selection of words and samples to play back that are associated with specific instrumental sound types. The cueing is a lot more dense in this piece though, and will require the players to negotiate spaces to deliver and respond to cues. There are other parallel cuing process that they engage with which further disrupt the flow of their attention and ask them to relate to each other in different configurations. I’m currently sourcing and editing 192 samples, which will be triggered by eight iPads. It’s been somewhat challenging finding 48 sound types in six clear categories for which there are recognisably different samples. I expected this to be a little more straightforward than it has been – it’s surprising how much clicks and noise-based sounds from sources as varied as chain wheels, aerosols, staplers and whips sound.
The piece, which is titled know that your actions reflect within the group, will be performed at Donaueschingen on 21 October.