"Everyone carries a room about inside them.
This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing.
If someone walks fast and one pricks up one's ears and listens, say at night,
when everything round about is quiet,
one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall."
This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing.
If someone walks fast and one pricks up one's ears and listens, say at night,
when everything round about is quiet,
one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall."
-Franz Kafka
i am super excited as tomorrow is opening night for Octavo, a new work by choreographer Gina Patterson for Richmond Ballet. this piece has been in the works for a while now, and really heavily for me over the past two months. it features three original movements that i composed and recorded and the rest of the music is by Max Richter from his Blue Notebooks record (which is devastatingly gorgeous by the way). so suffice to say this is an honor i am truly excited to talk about.
The Richter music had some of it's inspiration from The Blue Octavo Notebooks, a collection of writings by Franz Kafka. i Had read this years before i'd ever heard the Richter music and had always wanted to do some sort of theatrical piece based on it, so when this opportunity arrived it was perfect.
So i set out to create music with Kafka, Richter, and Gina and the dancers i'd be composing for as my major influences and then to get even crazier there is an entire movement in the ballet that features the dulcitar! i may be out of line saying it, but this could be the very first dance piece to feature the dulcitar, if it isn't i'd love to hear about others that have.
so i've recorded real piano, fake piano, piano with lots of effects on it, all sorts of dulcitar madness, and some percussion and even a little fuzz bass... it's subtle, but it's there! all in big rooms and small rooms, and did some field recording to boot. these songs are exclusive to this ballet at the moment but will be included on my upcoming solo release on Church Hill Records. get stoked for that!
anyway here are some videos about the creation of the piece for your viewing pleasure:
an interview with choreographer Gina Patterson:
The Richter music had some of it's inspiration from The Blue Octavo Notebooks, a collection of writings by Franz Kafka. i Had read this years before i'd ever heard the Richter music and had always wanted to do some sort of theatrical piece based on it, so when this opportunity arrived it was perfect.
So i set out to create music with Kafka, Richter, and Gina and the dancers i'd be composing for as my major influences and then to get even crazier there is an entire movement in the ballet that features the dulcitar! i may be out of line saying it, but this could be the very first dance piece to feature the dulcitar, if it isn't i'd love to hear about others that have.
so i've recorded real piano, fake piano, piano with lots of effects on it, all sorts of dulcitar madness, and some percussion and even a little fuzz bass... it's subtle, but it's there! all in big rooms and small rooms, and did some field recording to boot. these songs are exclusive to this ballet at the moment but will be included on my upcoming solo release on Church Hill Records. get stoked for that!
anyway here are some videos about the creation of the piece for your viewing pleasure:
an interview with choreographer Gina Patterson:
and an interview with me:
the ballet opens March 24 and runs through April 3, 2011 get tickets at www.richmondballet.com
as always, thanks for listening (and watching)
dave
as always, thanks for listening (and watching)
dave