Talk Show

flute, clarinet, piano, amplified violin, violin, cello

ensemble

Ensemble Perspektive
flute Aaron Wolharn
clarinet Sebastian Langer
piano Moena Katsufuji
amplified violin Muzi Lyu
violin Marija Radovanovicz
cello Rebekka Stephan

› download score
› watch on YouTube

Most musical material in Talk Show is derived from audio-to-midi-conversions of political TV-discussions – interpreted freely ‘by hand’, trying to find some sense in the glitchy and impossible-to-play results. How much ‘Talk Show’ is left after this process of transformation, which erases all the semantic information of the original conversation?

Recorded at Pina Bausch Theater, Folkwang Uni, Essen, on 11.01.2022 by Arthur Jogerst. Performed by Ensemble Perspektive.

Simon Bahr

composer

Twelve Bar Blues

piano, double bass, drums, computer

trio

piano Moena Katsufuji
double bass Dmytro Rudyk
drums Jonathan Schierhorn

› watch on YouTube

Twelve Bar Blues is based on the consideration that the term blues has referred to very different forms of music at different times in different places. It’s a long way from the origins of the blues to the blues I played myself as a teenager, where it served mainly as a chord scheme to improvise on. How far can we take it and still call it the blues?

Recorded at Pina Bausch Theater, Folkwang Uni, Essen, on 07.07.2021. Performed by Moena Katsufuji (piano), Dima Rudyk (bass) and Jonathan Schierhorn (drums).

Single Finger Mode

piano, computer

solo

piano Ying Yu

› Notizen zu Single Finger Mode [german]
› download score
› watch on YouTube

Single Finger Mode is a piece for a pianist and a computer playing together on one piano. The piece is composed algorithmically, which allows the computer to rate the accuracy of the live-performance compared to the score. With each note it computes a highscore and uses it to generate an accompaniment to the notes played by the performer. The more accurate the computer considers the performance, the more it will be tamed and adjust to the music played. The less accurate the computer considers the performance, the more will it come to live on its own: It likes tonal chords and consonances very much and is always in for a little fun.

Recorded live on 06.07.2021 at Pina Bausch Theater, Essen. Performed by Ying Yu (piano).