A spacial sound composition for church bells, church organ, brass orchestra, bicycle sound systems, vibraphones, recorders, street noises and electronics.
Piazza Della Repubblica, Foligno, Italy, June 27th, 2009, 9.00 – 19.00
“the compostion started at 9 in the morning with the two piazza cafes playing especially prepared cd’s. one was a 60 minute slow piece which was derived from sounds of the piazza plus vibraphone elements and street noises. the idea was that the cafe sounds whould interfere or match with the sounds of the piazza. the other cd was a saxophone recording by topo freier who had made an improvisation in tune to the church bells. the jazzy saxophone track was also supposed to match with the glossy cafe interior of the centralbar. outside electronic sounds from a big stereo p.a system were fading into the piazza ambience. there were high sounds, feedback modulations, bass jolts. around mid day three bicycles with speakers were sent around the piazza and inner city playing electronic signals which worked as solo melodies similar to mobile phone ringtones but would later also function as harmonic elements in the grande finale of the piece. next came a vibraphonist who was positioned opposite from the church. she played a score which was written by composer stefan streich and took elements from the church bells melody and the arizzete song, an adaption of a traditional foligno folk song. every hour the main church bells were supposed to play, too but on the day of the performance they didn’t. another unexpected interference were the heavy rain showers which interrupted the composition about every half an hour in the afternoon. at 4 o’clock a group of 10 kids entered the piazza playing two continous low notes on recorders. this subtle but nervous drone added another layer to the piece. finally the brass band entered the scene playing the arizzete arrangement at full speed. the band played the theme for a certain number of times and then continously slowed down. interrupted by rain showers for about three times the band finally played one long continous drone of all the notes of the arizzete composition. it was like a long real-time timestretching effect. the church bells finally joined in and together with the electronic sounds from the p.a. plus the long sustained notes of the vibraphone the piece culminated in a swirling vortex of harmonies and noises.”