Cat. 011 — 2023
Dissolving Room
Orchestra, tape and light · 26′10″
- Catalogue
- 011
- Year
- 2023
- Duration
- 26′10″
- Forces
- Orchestra (3.3.3.3 / 4.3.3.1),
two tape machines,
tungsten light - First heard
- A concert hall,
with the lights failing
A piece about a building forgetting its own shape.
The orchestra begins in unison and spends twenty-six minutes failing to stay there. There is no rhythmic instruction after bar 40 — players are asked to follow the light, which dims over the course of the piece on a fixed, published curve. As it dims, the ensemble loses its ability to read, and the music thins into whatever each player remembers of the line.
The tape part is the same orchestra, recorded in rehearsal, played back at seven-eighths speed. By the final third the live players are quieter than their own recording. Which is the point.
The score's only dynamic marking after bar 40 is the word fading, and it applies to the lamp. Performance note, p. 3
The visual above is not documentation of the piece. It is the same idea in a different medium: a structure that holds while you look straight at it, and comes apart the moment you move.
Excerpt
2′50″ from the final third.
Materials
- One 500 W tungsten lamp on a published dimmer curve
- Two ¼-inch machines running at seven-eighths
- Score in three layers, only the first of which is fully notated
- No conductor after bar 40
Scores and the dimmer curve are available on request. The piece has been performed four times; no two lasted the same length.