I am now fully into rehearsal mode for the upcoming just intonation world premiere of Doleo Æternus and it’s starting to get extremely interesting. On Sunday I had the first rehearsal with the bassoonist, Annie Lyle, and the computer. This was Annie’s first time hearing the computer and I had really completely forgotten how magical it can be.
I’m so used to rehearsing with people for whom the computer’s part is almost old hat. Drew, who was one of the first people to ever play this piece back in early rehearsals in 2004, doesn’t seem to be phased at all by the interruptions of the computer, and Laine, who helped premiere the piece as Anger, is an old pro at it at this point. Annie and I rehearsed the opening three chords, and the transition into the solo, where the work of the computer is most obvious. Annie had rehearsed with us a number of times already, but she told me after that only now did it suddenly all make sense.
I think I have been so hung up on, and obsessed with, the raga-like elements of the closing section that I had forgotten about the original impetus for this piece: the purity of the computer and its process. As important as we are as performers, and, don’t get me wrong, we’re extremely important, the computer trumps all and influences all. As soon as we start working with the computer, the choices we must make become extremely obvious; everything just feels right and makes sense.
It was a revelation.
Tags: 2009, Art, Collaboration, Doleo Aeternus, Doleo Æternus, Just Intonation, Music, Randy Gibson, Rehearsals
