- urban_soundscape #5
A three week concrete sound installation for the Charlottenborg Fall exhibition in Copenhagen September 28 to October 20, 2002.
© Jakob Draminsky Højmark
10 red 145 litre cement mixers are placed in the 60m2 room #305 at the Charlottenborg exhibition building.
With reference to three different families of material and the possible sound variations produced by different angle positions of the mixer barrels, a three week concrete sound composition is generated.
A concentrated 30 minute version of the work will be presented during The Copenhagen Cultural Night on 11 October 2002.
Musical parameters like rhythm, dynamics, tempo and timbre variations are
the main elements of the composition.
All actions are written in a three line score, each of the lines refers to
the angles of the barrels of the cement mixers.
Each week (movement) has an over all timbre (sound color) theme based on "the country side"(harvest), "the forest"(wood) and "the city"(plastic & rubber &rubber).
The movements are: "gradamente con gusto", "volubile col legno" and "molto strepitoso".
The kind and amount of objects used, as well as start, stop and speed are
fundamental tools in investigation of the proposed sound universe.
Each of the three movements are divided in seven parts.
Each day is related to one of the following seven musical dynamics:
ppp pp p mp mf ff fff.
Every morning, when the exhibition opens, the artist arrives to turn on the 10 machines and blend "the sound of the day".
The machines run without interruption all day long.
A prelude and a coda mark the beginning and the end of the piece.
The prelude, which in the long version corresponds to the first two days
of the exhibition, contains shifting tone colours. The following 21 parts are daylong static timbres.
The coda during the last day of the exhibition leaves the mixers turning with empty barrels.
In the concentrated 30 minute concert version, each of the 21 parts equals
one minute, while the prelude and the coda last respectively six and three
minutes.
The title of the work relates to the double meaning of the Spanish word for a religious procession and a guild.
jdh barcelona aug 2002
