Xenakis and some intense rehearsals!
Do you ever leave a rehearsal and your brain is totally fried?! Today was this day for me... The above is a small excerpt of Jalons by Xenakis, a 20th century composer who was a brilliant mathematician and a trained architect. When in France Xenakis actually approached Messiaen for lessons, however Messiaen believed more in harmonic structure than mathematical and he pushed Xenakis to pursue his architectural, mathematical and Greek roots to structure his compositions in his own way. He did this, and the result is something very unique! I have never seen a tuba part in any ensemble I have ever played in which is as complex both mathematically and technically as this. However it is a challenge and in the rehearsal today the 15 of us battled through and got to the end! A very interesting start to the three day rehearsal phase before we take it on a tour for five days next week in Nordrhein Westfahlen. We are also playing several other works in the concert by both living and dead composers and it should be pretty interesting to see. If you are free and are interested please look at my events page for more information. The group is called Ensemble Confusion and is an amalgamation of New Music Aachen, Neu Musik Koeln and Sinfonia NRW, of which I am a member. Hopefully see some of you there! F