Kivi, sakset, paperi (2002)
(Rock, paper, scissors)
Chamber Ensemble (cla, vl I, vl II, vla, vc,
cb, pno, perc)Duration: 15'
FP: Avanti, dir. Jan Söderblom, Helsinki, September 23, 2002
Available: http://musicfinland.com
"Rock, paper, scissors" is an old well-known game: a rock wins scissors, scissors wins paper and finally paper wins a rock. Every element
in the game is egal, each of them wins one but lose to the other.
I was playing
this game while composing the piece. Different groups of instruments and
musical elements are competing — being hard, cutting and covering each other.
How to win musically? During the work I was especially interested of covering
or masking. Masking is an electroacoustic concept which means that a soft sound
is not heard because of a louder sound. For example a pianist plays at same
time two tones: soft and loud. The soft sound will come audible after the loud
one has died away. Another way of masking is used in the section which I called
"every other". In that place two different harmonic movements are going on
similtaneously but showing up in every other chord. I tried to separate the
harmonies with different dynamics and playing technics.
Clarinet and piano has solistic role. They purposefully lead
the themes forward although they all the time fall into the "struggle of the game".
COMMISIONED BY AVANTI