Video

This is the second iteration of a growing work, yet as computer realisation, waiting for a human string quartet to be performed. Commissioned by and dedicated to Nadya Bokk.

Here is the explanation of the concept.

INFINITE SUPERPOSITION

Any of socially and media acceptable forms of music existence implies finishedness, completedness. All that we think and produce should result in a thing and should not rest in a progress, and that has an axiomatic power, because we possess a finite quantity of time.

At the foundation of music life (and not only) we find difference and repetition. We distinct aesthetic trends, figures of composers, separate opuses. Difference is linked with identity being reproduced by self-repetition; identity is linked with completedness. Only a completed statement might be taked into consideration; the author is implicitly required to mark and defend boundaries of his style and aesthetics; that is the way in which the very figure of author is determined.

I would like to dissect this axiomatics by means of infinite composition. I will write as if I could do it everlasting. At no timepoint will compositional process be considered as completed and the form as finished. A composition will gradually appear as a total of all versions, as a footprint of a period in which it is being composed. It can broaden infinitely and non-linearly, from any point in score.

In fact, this is an attempt of a new practice, 'pratica quarta', that might throw into question a paradigm of both opus and text corpus.

Any version might look as standalone piece; moreover, the whole thing might work as a database for extracting smaller pieces that do not coincide with versions. One can speak about the form regarding these transitional or incidental works; however, an infinite composition itself has no form. On the contrary, I suppose this process should have a place to be executed, a locus where to grow. Each growing composition – I'm planning several ones for different instruments – should acquire a physical (or virtual) place to happen.

experiments in measuring time with musical instruments
for 16 musicians and conductor

I. Pulse
II. Duration
III. Gravitation

Commissioned by The Prokhorov Fund for Alexandrinsky Theatre St. Petersburg
eNsemble of The Pro Arte Foundation
cond. by Fedor Lednev
video: Patrick K.-H.

In 1987 the Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss made the film Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go). This is an almost 40-minute chain of successive events, sort of "an accident in the lab" type: something burns, explodes, falls, breaks, flows, dissolves, melts, bursts. It’s like a crazy professor has built a mindless machine out of waste that does anything. There are no musical sounds in the film, but at the same time it is very musical, because all events in an incomprehensible way add up to a harmonious form, like a symphony without a single instrument. This is probably because very different physical and chemical processes do only one thing: they measure time.

I really love the Fischli and Weiss film. In my "Movement of Things" musical instruments appear as living metronomes or hourglasses: the length of the bow or string, the duration of the breath, the speed of repetition, the echo – everything has its own time, which I tried to release and show as a formative element. Music is generally about the flow and measurement of time; we do not notice it when time passes and is measured by our senses. And in the laboratory you can separate one from the other and see what happens. Or listen.

This is the first iteration of a growing work, yet as computer realisation, waiting for a human string quartet to be performed. Commissioned by and dedicated to Nadya Bokk.

Here is the explanation of the concept.

INFINITE SUPERPOSITION

Any of socially and media acceptable forms of music existence implies finishedness, completedness. All that we think and produce should result in a thing and should not rest in a progress, and that has an axiomatic power, because we possess a finite quantity of time.

At the foundation of music life (and not only) we find difference and repetition. We distinct aesthetic trends, figures of composers, separate opuses. Difference is linked with identity being reproduced by self-repetition; identity is linked with completedness. Only a completed statement might be taked into consideration; the author is implicitly required to mark and defend boundaries of his style and aesthetics; that is the way in which the very figure of author is determined.

I would like to dissect this axiomatics by means of infinite composition. I will write as if I could do it everlasting. At no timepoint will compositional process be considered as completed and the form as finished. A composition will gradually appear as a total of all versions, as a footprint of a period in which it is being composed. It can broaden infinitely and non-linearly, from any point in score.

In fact, this is an attempt of a new practice, 'pratica quarta', that might throw into question a paradigm of both opus and text corpus.

Any version might look as standalone piece; moreover, the whole thing might work as a database for extracting smaller pieces that do not coincide with versions. One can speak about the form regarding these transitional or incidental works; however, an infinite composition itself has no form. On the contrary, I suppose this process should have a place to be executed, a locus where to grow. Each growing composition – I'm planning several ones for different instruments – should acquire a physical (or virtual) place to happen.

This piece was initially written for French pianist Alexandre Tharaud and his project 'Pianosong'. It is a recomposition of one of the most famous song of XX century whose tune you can easily recognise but whose title is not shown here due to c.pyri.ht reasons .

This is the part of the project #direct_music. Anyone can commit me to compose and perform (if for piano) a one-or-more-page piece for him/herself or as a present for anyone else. If interested, comment here or mail me at schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

Это часть проекта #direct_music. Любой человек может заказать мне сочинить и исполнить (если для фортепиано) пьесу на одну (или не одну) страницу для самого себя или для другого человека. Если интересно, комментируйте здесь или пишите на schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

This is the first iteration of a growing piece, a homage to Satoshi Nakamoto. It will develop and expand depending on donations to BTC 18DHwXu22sbiWnVtNwhN69pdFYrXs74tW2

Here performed by organist Daniil Protsyuk. Can be played / arranged by anyone else on any keyboard(s). Sheet music and midifile are available on demand.

Performed by Mikhail Mordvinov

This is the part of the project #direct_music. Anyone can commit me to compose and perform (if for piano) a one-or-more-page piece for him/herself or as a present for anyone else. If interested, comment here or mail me at schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

Это часть проекта #direct_music. Любой человек может заказать мне сочинить и исполнить (если для фортепиано) пьесу на одну (или не одну) страницу для самого себя или для другого человека. Если интересно, комментируйте здесь или пишите на schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

Performed by Mikhail Mordvinov

This is the part of the project #direct_music. Anyone can commit me to compose and perform (if for piano) a one-or-more-page piece for him/herself or as a present for anyone else. If interested, comment here or mail me at schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

Это часть проекта #direct_music. Любой человек может заказать мне сочинить и исполнить (если для фортепиано) пьесу на одну (или не одну) страницу для самого себя или для другого человека. Если интересно, комментируйте здесь или пишите на schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

This is the part of the project #direct_music. Anyone can commit me to compose and perform (if for piano) a one-or-more-page piece for him/herself or as a present for anyone else. If interested, comment here or mail me at schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

Это часть проекта #direct_music. Любой человек может заказать мне сочинить и исполнить (если для фортепиано) пьесу на одну (или не одну) страницу для самого себя или для другого человека. Если интересно, комментируйте здесь или пишите на schmozart (at) gmail (dot) com

Первое исполнение / World premiere

По заказу Владимира Юровского и Московской Филармонии

Commissioned by Vladimir Jurowski and Moscow Philharmonia

ГАСО им. Светланова
Дирижёр Владимир Юровский

Камерный хор
Московской консерватории
Хормейстер Мария Челмакина

Ансамбль Questa Musica
Мария Грилихес

Владислав Песин, скрипка
Сергей Чирков, аккордеон


The State Academic Symphony Orchestra "Evgeny Svetlanov”
Conductor Vladimir Jurowski

The Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir
Chorus master Maria Chelmakina

Questa Musica Vocal Ensemble
Maria Grilikhes

Vladislav Pessin, violin
Sergey Tchirkov, accordion