Composition Commission to Annesley Black

Musik der Jahrhunderte / Festival ECLAT, Stuttgart, Germany
 

Tolerance stacks are used in mechanical engineering to calculate what happens when tolerances – i.e. the specified permissible deviations from standard behavior – accumulate or what deviations mechanical parts can tolerate before a machine fails.

In her composition TOLERANCE STACKS, Annesley Black explores the tension between man and machine. A quintet of analog electroacoustic instruments is confronted with a large ensemble in an evening of dialogue. All parameters – harmony, sound quality, tempo, rhythm, the role of soloists and ensemble, and the perception of transitional states – are pushed to their tolerance limits. In the process, the composer seeks out sounds that are on the verge of breaking down. She places this fragile, malleable musical material within a contradictory temporal architecture allowing these unstable moments to resound amidst precise metrical structures as key moments of this work made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

February 2, 2022
Theaterhaus Stuttgart

February 20, 2022
Klaus von Bismarck Hall Cologne

Further Information:
mdjstuttgart.de
eclat.org