Mimesis, Metaphor, Modelling

Programme:

A Lecture on the Principle of Symmetry

– for piano and live electronics

Imitation I – for two synthesizers

Aspects of Expression – for piano, tape, and video

Rain / As Rain / Alban Berg: Regen / Model of Rain / Rain is a Metaphor

Imitation II – for synthesizer

As if… – for piano and tape

I Chords as gas, as liquid, as solid

II Like Phase Transitions

Imitation III – for toy piano and bass drum

Experiment Lab: Listen to the Iceberg

– for two pianos and sounds of ice

Shared Space – for four e-bows and sine waves

Performers:

Riikka Talvitie, composition and live-electronics

Mirka Viitala, keyboard instruments

Joel Malmberg, piano

Silke Hietala, En-Li Lin and Ellen Swanljung, sound of ice

Meeri Pulakka, soprano

Esther Calderón Morales, live-electronics

Heidi Soidinsalo, dramaturgical dialogue and voice-over on tape

Sirje Ruohtula, light design

Jon-Patrik Kuhlefelt, sound technician

Anna Huuskonen, production

First performance: April 21, 2022, Musiikkitalo, Helsinki

Video recording:

Score:

Programme text:

“In this performance titled Mimesis, metaphor, modelling, I set out to find

an answer to the question: what do I actually express – or think I express –

when I compose? Honestly, I’m not sure whether researching one’s own

expression is possible; in any case the situation isn’t particularly objective.

But on the other hand, my aim is also provocative, as I reject the

elementary goal set by Western modernism, in which the composer brings

their inner voice, shrouded in an aesthetic veil, for all to hear. I claim that

expression can be one variable element alongside the other parameters we

know: melody, rhythm, harmony, and timbre.”