SPOR festival 2017 program

sky-me, type-me by the Polish composer and artist Jagoda Szmytka is inspired by modern forms of communication and the replacement of faceto-face relationships by email, messaging and Skype. Four megaphonewielding vocalists bring to life the rhythms of typing, the glitch-ridden resemblances of human speech, the unstable flow of a connection, and the simplification of sentiment when emoticons are more convenient than words. “What is nice is when people perform or listen to this piece and recognize a little piece of the reality they live in,” Jagoda Szmytka says.

Chorale is a new piece by the Danish composer Christian Winther Christen­ sen, commissioned by ensemble SCENATET, who premiered the piece at MATA Festival in New York, April 2017. The piece was inspired by one of Christian Winther Christensen’s earlier pieces – the ten-year-old Knocking Out From Heavens Door, and is composed for eight musicians, with two guitars in front: one electric and one acoustic. The electric guitar will only be amplified when the acoustic guitar is playing, and as a result the two guitars will unite in a homogeneous timbre even though they are continually playing against each other. Brief flashes of O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross

by J. S. Bach break through on the electric guitar as ghostly triads from the piano come and go.

Weep at the Elastic as it Stretches: An adaptation of N.F. Simpson’s Prayer is a new piece by British composer Matthew Rogers, based on a prayer extracted from Simpson’s 1958 play A Resounding Tinkle. It takes place as a radio broadcast that is part of a scene both domestic and ludicrous.

It asks that we rejoice in all manner of unexpected objects, situations and concepts, taking great delight in the most categorical of descriptions and in a complete lack of distinction between the mundane and the exotic. As is typical of Simpson’s work, the effect is both ridiculous and sublime, encapsulating the ineffability of an existence somehow both arbitrary and profound. Matthew Roger’s piece wishes to embody the attitudes and spirit of Simpson’s prayer, the final stage direction of which reads: The introductory bars of ‘Sweet Polly Oliver’ in an orchestrated version are heard from the wireless ... The piece was commissioned by Kammer Klang for the SCENATET ensemble, which premiered the piece at Cafe Oto in London, in early May 2017.

Produced and performed by SCENATET in collaboration with MATA Festival, New York and Kammer Klang, London: Mina Fred, viola / My Hellgren, cello / Frederik Munk Larsen, guitar / Kirsten Riis-Jensen, violin / Matias Seibæk, percussion / Sven Micha Slot, piano / Vicky Wright, clarinet / Marie Sønderskov, flute / Laura Møller Henriksen, production manager / Anna Berit Asp Christensen, artistic director Supported by The Danish Arts Foundation and Åbne Scene – Godsbanen