Marionette

concept: Jorge Isaac (2006)
performance: Jorge Isaac (blockflutes & electronics), Marko Ciciliani (no-input mixer & electronics)
music: Roderik de Man, Marco Ciciliani, Jos Zwaanenburg
video: Arnoud Noordegraaf

 

 

::: INSPIRATION SOURCE :::
In “Über das Marionetten Theater” (On the Puppet Theater, 1810) Heinrich von Kleist, through his protagonist Herr C., discourses on the infinite grace of inanimate objects. The Puppet Theater was not written for marionettes to play, but as a description of their function and value. He compares the capacities of live performers and marionettes according to romantic aesthetics. Kleist explains that objects, unlike people, need not behave affectedly. He says the marionette, unfettered by the need to touch the ground (since it's strumming to the tune of strings pulled from the top), is far more graceful than the human dancer. Only a god or possibly an animal such as a bear, Herr C. proclaims, could equal the grace of inanimate matter, whereas humans are clumsy, weighed down by consciousness. In his argumentation for the superiority of the marionette Kleist shows a belief in the cognitive and creative superiority of the unconscious over the conscious, of spontaneity and intuition over reason. Kleist’s enthusiasm for the marionette theatre was shared by many yet the weight of his words and the endless possibilities he saw in the puppet world were not be recognized until long after his death, adding justification to the notion that Kleist was a man born before his time.

::: CONCEPT :::
"Das Marionettentheater" provided the story and inspired the scenario for the project Marionette: a multimedia concert for two musicians (blockflutes, no-input mixer and electronics) where the field of tension between acoustic sounds and multimedia creates a story about the relationship mechanics and life. The performers are (un)consciously represented by a machine (their instruments), sound and image. The performance displays a multimedia environment as representative of pure sound, an environment that embodies the question of sound imperfection, contradiction and ambiguity of the communication between acoustic sources and multimedia.

::: PROJECT DESCRIPTION :::
Three composers received the commission to write a new work having as leitmotiv the correlation between mechanics and life: the composers Roderik de Man (Netherlands), Jos Zwaanenburg (Netherlands) and Marko Ciciliani (Croatia). This multimedia concert is performed by two musicians: Jorge Isaac (blockflutes & live electronics) and Marko Ciciliani (no-input mixer & live electronics). The total length of the program is ca. 65 min. (without brake).
Marionette brings together music, theatre, video and live electronics. The accent relays on the music. A virtuosic blockflute performance, unheard electronic improvisations with the no-input mixer (a mixing board which does not use any external inputs, but where all sounds are created through internal feedbacks) and a rich musical background make up the musical layer. Video images are used as dynamic stage décor and as the medium of abstract materialization of mechanic processeshttp://www.ciciliani.com

Jorge Isaac
recorders & live electronics
(b. 1974, Caracas) completed his professional training under the tutelage of Walter van Hauwe at the Amsterdam Conservatory in 2000. In 2002 received his master degree on contemporary performance & live electronics with Jos Zwaanenburg at the same institution. Isaac’s specialist field is in contemporary music and the use of live electronics. He has won prizes at renowned contemporary music competitions such as the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition 2001 in The Netherlands and the Krzysztof Penderecki International Competition of Contemporary Music in Poland. In 2004 he was awarded the first prize at the Jur Naessens Music Award in The Netherlands with his multimedia production "Mensa Secunda". As a soloist, Isaac has given a variety of performances and masterclasses in The Netherlands, Germany, England, Belgium, Ireland, Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Mexico and Venezuela. He has participated in varied recording productions, such as radio broadcasts for the Hessen’s radio (HR4) in Germany, the company Shell (Mexico/ The Netherlands), Teldec (Germany), blockflute samplers in the USA, and his own music together with pianist/composer Elik Alvarez (Venezuela). He has participated in several International Music Festivals such as Hessen’s Festival (Korbach-Germany), Second International Blockflute Festival (Amsterdam), From Distant Lands (London), Festival Internacional de Puebla (Mexico), Ultima Festival (Oslo), Music for Galway (Ireland), Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), Spazio Musica (Cagliari), International Youth Music Forum (Kiev), Time of Music Festival (Finland).

Jorge Isaac has performed together with a.o. the Dutch ensembles - ASKO & Schoenberg, the Dutch Chamber Orchestra, The National Dutch Ballet, The Dutch Opera, regisseur Pierre Audi, blockflutist Walter van Hauwe, cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, composers György Ligeti, Roderik de Man, Jukka Tiensuu; and the conductor Reinbert de Leeuw. He is at the moment involved with solo recitals, multimedia research projects, his teaching position at the Amsterdam Conservatory and in the production of multidisciplinary performances together with
Visisonor Media Productions. Among his recent works: Mensa Secunda (interdisciplinary performance, 2004), Voix égales (2005, research towards the “Integral Music Performance”), OMONIA (2005/06, one-man-art performance), Sensorial Acts (2006, research project towards the use of smells and temperature changes in music performance), Marionette (2006, multimedia concert).
contact: http://www.visisonor.net

Marko Ciciliani
Composer, No-input mixer & electronics
Born in 1970 in Croatia, Marko Ciciliani received his musical training as a composer, music theorist and electronic musician in New York, Hamburg and The Hague. Already during his studies he has collected extensive experience not only in the fields of 'academic' composition, but also in free improvisation. He has written for a variety of settings, including orchestra, ensembles, solo works and sound installations, often including live-electronics or other media like light, video or cartoons. Since 1996 he lives in Amsterdam/Netherlands.
Typical for Ciciliani’s work is that it tries to combine seemingly contradictory materials, giving the composition a feeling of experiment and playfulness, with surprising turns and a variety of color. Ciciliani’s music is performed by ensembles such as ASKO, Ensemble Intégrales, Zeitkratzer, MAE, Orkest de Volharding, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, qO-2 and Interzone Perceptible. It has been played all over Europe, the Americas and Asia and is present at festivals such as Wien Modern, Bregenzer Festspiele, Zagreb Biennale, ISCM World Music Days 2005, Gaudeamus, Novembermusic, Open Systems, Proms in Paradiso/Amsterdam, Roaring Hooves Mongolia, Das Neue Werk NDR Hamburg, Música a Metronom/Barcelona and elsewhere.
In 2005 Ciciliani has founded the group Bakin Zub, an ensemble comprising eight outstanding musicians from different backgrounds. Bakin Zub is dedicated to the performance of Ciciliani’s music while placing an emphasis on the combination of sound, light and video. Currently Ciciliani is working on the large-scale work 'My Ultradeep I' for this setting.
As a performer Ciciliani has used the no-input mixer for many years, a mixing board which does not use any external inputs, but where all sounds are created through internal feedbacks. As an improviser he has given concerts with Fred Frith, Jaap Blonk,Axel Dörner and Sachiko M, amongst others. Ciciliani is also touring internationally with a repertiore of solo compositions for the no-input mixer.
As a performer of electronic music he has furthermore worked with a.o. the Südwest Rundfunkorchester Freiburg/Baden-Baden, ASKO, Schönberg Ensemble, the Radiofilharmonisch
Orkest Hilversum and the Slagwerkgroep Den Haag. contact: http://www.ciciliani.com

Roderik de Man
composer
Roderik de Man (Bandung/Indonesië 1941) studied percussion with Frans van der Kraan and theory of music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. At the same time he participated in composition classes with Kees van Baaren and worked in the electronic studio as a student of Dick Raaymakers. Since 1972 he teaches theoretica subjects and composition to young composers at the same institute. Between 1993 and 1997 he was on the board of the Dutch Composer's Society (GeNeCo). Since 1998 he is on the board of CEM (centre for Electronic Music). Recently he was asked to be counselor to the board of the Stichting Ton Bruynèl, foundation for the promotion of electronic music and since the fall of 2003 he is on the board of the GAUDEAMUS Foundation. Roderik de Man received many commissions from a.o. the Foundation for the Creation of Music, the Amsterdam Art Fund and the Johan Wagenaar
Foundation. He composes purely instrumental as well as instrumental/electronic music. His oeuvre consists of solo pieces, chambermusic and works for choir, large ensembles and orchestra. Several times compositions were selected by the international jury of the ISCM (the International Society for contemporary Music) to be performed during the World Music Days (Oslo 1991, Mexico 1993, Seoul 1997, Boucarest 1998). In 1991 "Chordis Canam" for harpsichord and tape won the 2nd prize in the competition of the Festival de Musique Electroacoustique in Bourges, where he was among the finalists in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001. In 1999 "Air to Air" for flute, basset horn and trumpet received the 2nd prize in the same festival and also the 2nd prize in the Concorso Internazionale di Composizione "Città die Torino 2000". Sin descanso for blockflutes and tape was selected for the World Music Days 2004 in Switzerland. In 2005 Cordes invisibles for violoncello, piano and tape, received the first prize in the Concours de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges. Roderik de Man's music was performed and broadcast in most European countries as well as in the United States, Brasil, Mexico, Venezuela, Indonesia and Japan. contact: http://www.roderikdeman.com

Jos Zwaanenburg
composer
Jos Zwaanenburg (b. 1958, Bovenkarspel). Dutch composer of mostly chamber, vocal and electroacoustic pieces that have been successfully performed throughout Europe and the USA; he is also active as a flautist. Zwaanenburg graduated with distinction from the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam in 1985, where he studied composition with Wim de Ruiter and flute with Joost Tromp. His honors include an honorable mention for performing his own compositions at the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition (1984).
He has performed extensively throughout the Americas and Europe, including many radio and television broadcasts, playing solo, as a member of different orchestras, as a soloist with orchestras, and as a member of ensembles involved in classical as well as improvised music. In 1995, he founded the experimental rock group KXTAHPAPH, with which he performs and for which he composes most material.
He is well known for his research into new playing techniques for the flute, which combines his interests in composition, live electronics and performance. He is also known for his initiation of the development of the open hole alto flute in cooperation with the Dutch flutemakers Eva Kingma and Dirk Kuiper in
1986-87 and often uses it to display his command of these new techniques. Many composers internationally have written works for him. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and also a guest lecturer at the music department of Oxford Brookes University, where he has been appointed as a research associate. He has published studies for contemporary flute techniques and has given lectures, masterclasses and