Premiere new work for Ensemble Offspring

Ensemble Offspring Claire Edwardes, percussion and artistic direction works by Kate Moore, Andrea Keller, Holly Harrison and Ned McGowan Premiere of a Sydney Polypulse , which I wrote for EO this summer: In 1962 György Ligeti created Poème symphonique , with 100 metronomes clicking away simultaneously. Despite the social controversy in the Dutch media of this Fluxus event-piece, it created a wonderful new sound never heard before: a web of precise polypulses sounding at the same time. It is this sound that has fascinated me as a composer for quite some time. In the works Building Music (2013) and For Bob (2015) I have been exploring how to recreate polypulses with live musicians, using metronomes each with their own tempo. This brings many syncronisational problems, which become opportunities for various different musical solutions. Sydney Polypulse (2019) is the latest of these compositions and the first to use a new technology to facilitate the multitude of simultaneous tempi: the Soundbrenner metronome. This metronome is worn as a normal watch and uses a haptic vibration instead of an audible clicking sound or a visual flashing, to communicate the pulse. This mimics what I believe is how our sense of inner pulse works: through a feeling maintained in the body In Sydney Polypulse, each musician has their own tempo, from the set 60, 61, 62, 63, 64 and 65 bpm. The beginning of the piece is simply this combination of tempi, allowing the fascinating combination of many speed phasings to sonically emerge. From there the piece goes on a journey exploring different materials using these tempi. Various tuplets are used throughout to create a greater range of speeds beyond the basic pulses. Sydney Polypulse was commissioned by and dedicated to Claire Edwardes and Ensemble Offspring. 6 September | 7.00 pm Tivoli Vredenburg – Hertz Utrecht Link