Jakob Ullman: LA SEGUNDA CANCIÓN DEL ANGEL DESAPARECIDO

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, UK

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival will realize German composer Jakob Ullmann’s work LA SEGUNDA CANCIÓN DEL ANGEL DESAPARECIDO, culminating in a world premiere performance in November 2015. LA SEGUNDA CANCIÓN DEL ANGEL DESAPARECIDO is characteristic of Ullmann’s oeuvre: a long, slowly developing structure with an intensely quiet dynamic range. The specific interpretative demands of the work will be met by a specially selected collective of musicians with particular experience in contemporary music, working with graphic scores and improvisation. This team of musicians, from throughout Europe, will meet several times during a year-long process of workshops and rehearsal phases. This lengthy working period is necessary in order to realise the strong experience of passing time that is inherent in Ullmann’s music. At the heart of the score is a contradiction: although the performers are required to use a stopwatch to strictly follow the graphic notation second-by-second, the quietness and the highly active but nonetheless restrained movements of the musicians give the opposite impression to the audience; a static, tense timelessness. The 90-minute piece was written in 2013 for an ensemble of 10 players (flute, basset horn, bassoon, 2 percussionists, 2 violinists, viola and 2 cellists). It is dedicated to the Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, whose work deals with the history of dictatorship and war in south-eastern Europe in the 20th Century. Angelopoulos is known for unconventionally long takes, where slight changes in movement and distance take on a potent meaning. The structure and the musical and physical movement in Ullmann’s work pay tribute to Angelopoulos’ style.

November 24, 2015
St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield

More information:
www.hcmf.co.uk