Category: Uncategorized

we choose

to other, to lead or to follow, to stay, to fall behind, to leave

the idea for this piece came progressively with the task of writing for percussion instruments with the orchestra

i have been thinking a lot about rituals, about the need to repeat, and the place of music in strengthening rituals
the need for stability
i thought of (sub)cultures and religions creating a feel of belonging by exclusion, by othering
i thought of bunraku, i thought of ragavardhana
i appropriated aspects of different cultures, i wish i knew more, i wish i was perhaps born somewhere else
i thought of me accompanying (?) or leading (?) the congregation in my home village
i dismembered a lent-time hymn i love to sing with the community and with my sister
i strived to revive a choir i heard

the choir members could not tune into one key together at first
during the hymn, a beautiful clarification occurred- the voices, initially as many as singers, progressively joined together into one line
it was a transforming experience, being able to tell by observing people sing, that

1) there was a huge problem that could be only overcome by all acting together
2) there arose different roles within this microscopic society
3) there were leaders, there were false leaders that led astray
4) overall, there were people that did their best. it was an important day and they considered themselves subordinate to the task they had to carry out

i thought of the organ and its quint stop
i am obsessed with the fifth and the sweet seventh
i thought of roots being taken away and put back
roots as in a root of a chord and roots as in that i often do not know where i am standing, what to leave and what to retain
can i uproot myself
i thought a lot about nothing recently
i thought of being suspended in water, being suspended in void that does not develop
i thought of hierarchies, all kinds of them, and i made one for the musicians to make my life easier
i wondered about agency, when do the hierarchies break, shuffle, how do the individuals act within them
i have mistreated the agents in these hierarchies
i thought about taking the privilege to grant you a melody
i dreaded the thought of having to predict and control 10 minutes of the future

written for Avanti! chamber orchestra

conducted by Jukka Rantamäki

Premiered on 12 December 2023 by Avanti! chamber orchestra at Sonore hall of Musiikkitalo Helsinki

With thanks to Lauri Kilpiö, Veli-Matti Puumala and Liza Lim

Special thanks to Anna Huuskonen and Lotta Vartiainen

Area, where this piece has been recorded, the Maple Mountains, is rich in its pastoral and agricultural history. Being only less than 5 miles away from the Slovak-Czech border, these lone settlements in the mountains were mostly built by settlers of Moravian Wallachian background, an ethnicity which is to this day present in both the Moravian part of Czechia and in North-Western Slovakia. Some of them still upkeep traditions and language traits. Maple mountains used to be bare and deforested, an ideal place for Wallachians to live in, as their main domain in surviving hard mountainous and outback conditions was keeping livestock.

Herdsmen and herdswomen out in the mountains often communicated between themselves by singing or using various wind instruments. Later on, during the communist era, on top of urbanizing the population, comrades aggressively forested the Maple Mountains with spruce in pursuit of quick wood mass production. The ecosystem, sonic and visual, has been irreversibly transformed. This piece contemplates various interventions- traditional wind instruments and techniques used to generate sound are altered with recent technology, the recent technology present in a place without electricity or other infrastructure, or, an individual intervening in the silence of the mountain environment, as in the past.

Recorded at Badačovský Grúň, Papradno, Slovakia, 2020

Featured on Trinity Laban’s Tunes From Home covid-time series

Name of this performance- ‘reality’ is variable and takes its name as a date of the day, when it is actually to be performed. This piece is a musical-theatrical response to the HAPPSOC manifesto, devised in 1965 by Stano Filko, Zita Kostrová and Alex Mlynárčik, Slovak Modernist/Avantgarde/Nouveau Réalisme artists. It is also inspired by features from the documentary movie Happsoc, directed by Kvetoslav Hečko, created for Slovak Television in 1996. Performers and the audience are invited to enjoy and take part in extended, out-of-ordinary reality, yet try to perceive it as an ordinary reality, as if creating another dimension and accustomizing to live in it.

Written originally for the Rude Health festival of new music, organized by the Composition department of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, it also features the thematic concept of the evening, that being ‘Distant Apertures-’ sonic feed from the drum, the aperture in the visual feed, or aperture to the desired ‘other dimension’ of perceiving reality.

Colours and their traits are as follows- red, as natural, spontaneous; orange, symbolising creativity; yellow, as sensible and intellectual; green- bizarre, naive happy socialist (with no political association); blue, representing space, cosmos of the reality; black- egocentric, featuring a third eye and finally, white symbolising an eternal light, a timeless spirit. All these aforementioned features are adhered to when devising the performance, either absolutely or metaphorically.

In line with the television documentary, the number of performers is 7 and they are assigned different colours coming with different traits. Secondly, in line with the manifesto and the seeking of extra-ordinary, the actions, music and features of the performance bring an unusual atmosphere. The graphic language facilitating the whole performance strengthens this from the side of the performers.

The graphic sign language used in this realisation is greatly inspired by the work of Milan Adamčiak, composer, conceptual artist, musicologist and musician, whose career was rooted in the relationship of visual and musical aspects inside the performance.

Premiered on 7th November 2020, part of Rude Health New Music Festival

Scenography | Ján Števuliak
Video | Benjamín Števuliak, Viktor Ptáček, Maxwell Higdon

Thanks to Max for big help with his car

Performers

Yellow | Guitar | Anders Waller
Green | Act | Benjamín Števuliak
Orange | Clarinet | Ján Števuliak
White | Trombone | Maxwell Higdon
Red | Voice | Ona Černiauskaitė
Blue | Facilitator | Rebecca Galian Castello
Black | Percussion | Viktor Ptáček

487 000 000 000 GPB Gross Domestic Product
4 475 817 Males
4 486 172 Females
3 592 000 Households
1572 Square Kilometers
5 171 642 TfL Journeys
10550 Homeless
89 021 Positive Covid-19 Cases
6 800 000 Parking Spaces
107 Higher Education Institutions
356 200 Students
160 000 metres of Sewers
3000 Parks
97 Cemeteries
1 Tower Bridge
1 London Eye
2 Houses of Parliament
32 Boroughs
37 Skyscrapers
73 Railway Lines
369 Train Stations
19 174 Listed Buildings
116 Cinemas
42 Shopping Centers
165 Museums and Public Galleries
263 Theatres
345 Libraries

1262 + 1 Performance Venues

A formal experiment, subjectively utilizing extramusical material. Stemming from an interest in geology, I apply a geological cross-section of the London area as a formal outline for producing the piece and the score. Its layers serve as a basis for organizing events in time, and organizing material and ultimately, they give the piece its sonic shape.

Ecomusicology is ‘the study of music, culture and nature, it considers musical and sonic issues related to ecology and natural environment.’ This piece ponders on natural issues- the geological structures under London, which we as inhabitants of the city are mostly not concerned with as all we can see is the surface. It probes cultural associations- using the organ- the contrast of primitive medieval-sounding intervals and progressions, stretched pitches vs. live processing.

Performed by Ján Števuliak

Tape and Live Electronics by Ján Števuliak

Recorded in 2021

An image that keeps lingering in my mind after my past visits to Lake District and Snowdonia is the vastness of slate mines and quarries, particularly the Dinorwic quarry. The impact of resourcing has continuously influenced many of my musical works. Slate keeps our homes dry, carries our food, paves our walkways or reminds us of our loved ones. The by-product of our utilisation takes shape of what I would like to call an inverted cathedral, in an allusion to John Ruskin’s words. One is surrounded by soaring stone walls and a sheer space with reverberant acoustics. Musical aspects of this work are inspired by real places in the Lake District- flooded tunnels of the Hodge Close Quarry, the Yew Crag incline in Honister, the airy acoustics of the Cathedral Cave or the terraces of the Elterwater Quarry. Music is also subjectively responding to the work of Julian Cooper, a Lakeland painter- his landscapes are related to the aforementioned places and have a unifying element of a rocky grey colour- conveyed by the recurrence of motives and harmonies. An underlining acoustic theme throughout the quartet is a sound that is supposed to revive a stone-chipping soundscape of a Slate tile workshop.

Score (issuu)

Premiered by the Waldstein Quartet at Lake District Summer Music Festival 2022, Kendall Town Hall, Cumbria, UK

With thanks to Steve Threlfall, Nic Pendlebury and Dominic Murcott

Special thanks to Cecilia McDowall for valuable ideas during the workshop and for the engaging introduction of this piece at the premiere

A triptych based on transformative power resourcing exerts on our surroundings.
Material prompting the performance is developed from satellite images or relevant video footage and leaves space for performers to decide on some aspects of the performance- eg. instrument choice, techniques, dynamics etc.
Environments, which inspired this piece are, among others, The Dinorwic and Penrhyn slate quarries in Wales (material for the litophone- a stone percussion instrument built for this work, comes from Penrhyn Quarry) or the National Park Low Tatras, which is being continuously deforested at a rapid speed.

More details in the score (link below)

-First recording by Ján Števuliak (SoundCloud below)

-Second recording released on BandCamp, under Orbweavers Collective in 2021

BandCamp release

Score (issuu)

Ister is a personal contemplation of the genre of a tone poem. It looks back on nationalistic tendencies of the 19th and 20th centuries, and adopts and transforms ideas behind works of composers such as Dvořák or Moyzes writing in this style. Ister is a Greek name for the River Danube. While previously mentioned composers in their works Má Vlast or Dolu Váhom focused on rivers exclusive to their countries, which suited their nationalistic views, the river Danube flows through ten countries. It is a natural resource for live ecosystems and human activities, a barrier that requires effort to overcome. Nations that developed on its banks share history, their cultural traits and the musicality of their people in its core has been passed down for centuries from the Ancient Greeks.

Hence, this tone poem alludes to the journey of the Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea, suggests flashes of the cultures that are present around it, and draws on Ancient Greek music theory to produce tonal material that alters as tributaries alter the waters. It also contains moods and atmospheres that reflect the composer’s subjective perceptions.

Recorded in 2021 within Trinity Laban’s New Music Project

Conducted by Gregory Rose

With thanks to Stephen Montague

Score (issuu)

‘Objective Estrangement’ is a work responding to the feelings ignited by changes to the usual. It questions the massive, if not frantic need for redevelopment in our cities and takes it as source material for producing graphic scores- eg. changes in skylines, urban environment or maps. Highlighting the ‘estrangement,’ material prompting musical events falls outside the general canon- undetermined pitches or durations or semi-determined order of executing pitches aim to make the performers feel estranged from their usual practice.

More information below.

Performed by Rebecca Galian Castello (Harp) and Ján Števuliak (Organ)

Fragments from the score

Below are some scans of graphics and estranged (?) notation that has been marked on transparent paper. The performer dedicates about half a minute to each transparency. They can decide whether to read left to right or vice versa and also whether to perform only the front material or material all that is currently visible.

This work is a result of a collaboration with pianist and singer Carolina Cury and Sonic Artist and guitarist Konstantinos Damianakis. It is inspired by the book ‘Invisible Cities’ (1972) by Italo Calvino (1923-1985). In it he makes the reader rethink many pretty much well-established concepts- chaptering standards in books, what is spoken language intended for, why we travel… He creates a space for adults to fantasise, places where everyday rules are forgotten and regular processes of our world do not take place. This piece tries to convey in musical texture or structure the ideas, actions or landscapes of some of the cities. Approaches chosen by the composer are subjectively thought of as architectural- the music is built angularly, from cells or certain intervals. Pitch and harmony are a result of rather strict adherence to set rules in manipulating the theme. Variations provide diversity- sounding as well as performative- different modes of playing are employed throughout.

More information on individual variations, electronics and motion tracking can be found in the score.

Score (issuu)

First performance by Carolina Cury (2022) at the Halford Prize (Winning Entry)

First concert performance at New Lights Festival 2022 by Carolina Cury

This piece has been inspired by behavioural psychology, multiple ways individuals perceive the past and how the past experience influences future human behaviour. The musical realities of this piece are also exposed to the problematic of past vs. present and/or future- material performed on the piano returns back a few seconds later with help of a delay pedal. With this arrangement, the music presented tries to reflect different approaches to one’s own past- patience, cohabitation, conflict, denial, resignation or acceptance.

First performance by Milda Vitartaitė (2021)

First concert performance at New Lights Festival 2022 by Milda Vitartaitė

Score (issuu)