THE LIVING SCORE

A journey through the space of a musical score, an adventure in the ever-expanding development of musical motifs. At the performance’s core is the electronic treatment of Hungarian folk music. By combining visual elements, live sampling of musical instruments and other electronic deconstructions, the performers create a live, interactive sound memory bank. The audience becomes witness to a resonating score in development.

This unique musical performance art piece is based on studies of the score as a phenomenon in and of itself. Visual artist Tomáš Vaněk will use a projection screen representing the score’s space. Visual elements ranging from stencils to spray-paint and other unexpected media are used on the screen, which is in turn filmed by a web camera, recording, organizing, and controlling the building blocks of musical motifs. Musical elements will be assigned to individual visual elements, and modelled electronically in turn.

The structure of the living score is similar to the solar system. A sound object can be compared to the Sun and the sound effects to the orbiting planets. Movement inside the system changes distances and mutual influence. The changeable relationships of sound elements generate endless variations of resulting musical harmonies.