electrocd

Animalcules

Natasha Barrett

Animalcules

  • Natasha Barrett
  • Year of composition: 2010
  • Duration: 5:03
  • Instrumentation: ambisonic fixed medium
  • Commission: Notam with support from the Norsk Kulturråd
  • ISWC: T9066468131

Animalcules was composed for the Pierre Schaeffer 100-year jubilee. To prepare my mind-set, I returned to Schaeffer’s Cinq études de bruits. Many years had passed since I last heard these works. Listening anew, entertained by new thoughts, I revisited Schaeffer’s ideas: the sound object, the classification of sound parameters, reduced listening, and theories about how we hear and listen. How do these concepts relate to the listener in our current society? In Schaeffer’s time, did people listen differently? Thinking about my own experience as a contemporary listener, and addressing how time changes our perspectives, I returned to materials from a work I composed long ago, in 1997: Little Animals. This etude is the result of this process.

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Animalcules was realized in 2010 in Ambisonics at the composer’s studio in Hvalstad (Norway), and premiered on December 4, 2010 at Caféteatret as part of the Grønland Kammermusikfestival in Oslo (Norway). The piece was commissioned by Notam (Norsk nettverk for Teknologi, Akustikk og Musikk / Norwegian network for Technology, Acoustics and Music) with support from the Norsk Kulturråd (Arts Council Norway), as part of a Pierre Schaeffer 100-year jubilee. Thanks to Notam for including Animalcules in these celebrations.

Composition

Premiere

  • December 4, 2010, Grønland Kammermusikfestival 2010: Concert, Caféteatret — Nordic Black Theatre, Oslo (Norway)

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