Organon Sostenuto
for flute, bassoon, cello, double bass and live electronics
Performed by Ensemble 4+
Organon Sostenuto was written for the Ensemble 4+ of Copenhagen (Tanja Dacesin – flute, Pia Enblom – cello, Külli Sass – bassoon and Kristjian Sigurleiffson – double bass), and was premiered in Copenhagen in January of 2005. The word Organon refers to a body of knowledge, in this case the concept of music and its history as a body of knowledge to be explored. In the piece, musical techniques and sounds from my own past, the historical past and the past of the piece itself are captured and manipulated in real-time through computer software programmed specifically for this piece.
Everything heard from the computer is derived in some way from the performance itself, and is therefore different with each performance. Temporal and pitch aspects of the piece are also flexible, requiring the performers the play careful attention to each other. It is this reliance of the performers on each other that I find most attractive about this piece. Details left out of the music require the players to rely on cues and direction from each other as the piece goes on, while at the same time asking the player to control the computer part and respond to the changes of processing.
Organon Sostenuto was awarded the ‘Best Piece from the Americas’ prize at the ICMC 2007 festival in Copenhagen.