performing Pierre Boulez’s Anthemes II for solo violin and electronics this Sunday at Symphony Center. The pain, specifically, is in the right index finger, from all the crazy pizzicato in the piece! But it’s mostly privilege. Since Anthemes II needs specialized equipment and technicians (I’ll explain in a moment) it doesn’t get played by very many people. So while it requires some tenacity in the practice room, it’s not an opportunity to turn down.
Basically, the piece explores the sound world of the violin, as enhanced by speakers surrounding the performance space. That space, on Sunday, will be the main stage, so quite large. I will have a pickup mic clipped onto my bridge, and this will be fed to a computer. Rather than simply amplifying my sound and playing it on the speakers, the computer will use my sound as the basis for all kinds of transformation. Sometimes it will add 5 notes of harmony to whatever I play, sometimes it will repeat what I play with a specific delay. At other times it will add sounds that, while violin sounds, do not match what I play at that moment. The idea is that what comes out of the speakers should not sound like me with an echo; it should be precisely balanced so that no one can tell what is “real” and what is not. But then again, all sound is real, and that will be one thing to take away from the piece.
In addition to the pizz (continuous groups of 6 at quarter=63) it really is a tangle for the left hand, but that will hopefully continue to clear up in the next few days. I’ll be playing it for the composer then, and of course on Saturday there will be hours of rehearsal putting it together with the electronics. As I say, there must not only be the surround speaker setup, but two audio/computer technicians. One is there entirely for sound, and the other controls the specialized software developed in Paris at IRCAM. This person must know the piece as well as the performer, since there are many adjustments to be made during the 20-minute piece. As I said, it may be a while before I get to play this piece again, if ever!