Context

Performance

Instrumentation

Elektroakustisk musik

Classification

Elektroakustisk musik

Subject heading

Yn

Language

Recording

Date

1983-03-03

Location

Stockholm, Fylkingen

Background

Comments about the work

From the very beginning, when the thirty-one-year-old composer was firstintroduced to a larger audience in 1977 with the composition Face the Music,scored for his own instrument the trumpet plus electro-acoustic tape, his manyyears of experience lent him the appearance of a mature composer. The pieceitself, with its lively, imaginative and witty outer movements surrounding acalmer centre, immediately became enormously popular. With its infectious joiede vivre and virtuoso trumpet part it was a frequently performed work whichstated with conviction that here was a composer worthy of attention. Zwedberg's next unexpected success as a composer, the electro-acoustic workHanging from 1979 (which is also the oldest piece on this CD), is far removedfrom the kaleidoscopic collage technique of Face the Music. Here thecomposer has in fact already developed and perfected the compositiontechnique whereby an astonishing wealth of sonic and structural variation isevolved from an extremely limited material, while still remaining strictly withinthe limits of basic compositorial principles. In Hanging the basic materialconsists of a recording of a 20-second sequence played on the "stråkharpa"(bowed harp), an archaic folk instrument which is extremely rich in overtones.From this material Zwedberg has extracted a large number of spectral andrhythmic compositorial building bricks out of which the composition has thenbeen built up round two "towers" in the form of solidly supported dynamicculminations. The dominating, mysteriously shimmering timbre, in conjunctionwith the suggestively surrepetitious rhythms, gives Hanging a strangelymystical character. The piece was an immediate success and has beenperformed at several new music festivals and was also selected to representSweden on a record which was issued under the auspices of UNESCO with theaim of introducing electro-acoustic music to a wider audience. Nowadays it isreckoned as one of the genuine classics in this genre. The trumpet sounds from Face the Music and the bowed harp from Hangingreappear in the tape composition Merz II from 1983 - this time in combinationwith sounds recorded in the Stockholm Underground. As the title implies thiscomposition is a tribute to the dadaist Kurt Schwitters and there has a moreopen, more collage-like form, where the pre-recorded sounds undergoastounding metamorphoses. Here Zwedberg exploits the opportunity which wasmade available by Buchlas voltage controlled synthesizer, which at the timewas one of the most important compositional tools at the Electronic MusicStudio in Stockholm. The trumpet sounds from Face the Music and the bowed harp from Hangingreappear in the tape composition Merz II from 1983 - this time in combinationwith sounds recorded in the Stockholm Underground. As the title implies thiscomposition is a tribute to the dadaist Kurt Schwitters and there has a moreopen, more collage-like form, where the pre-recorded sounds undergoastounding metamorphoses. Here Zwedberg exploits the opportunity which wasmade available by Buchlas voltage controlled synthesizer, which at the timewas one of the most important compositional tools at the Electronic MusicStudio in Stockholm. Text: Sten Hansson. From Phono Suecia nr 82 (1994) Translation. Cynthia Zetterqvist

Record Label

SMIC

List

The work

Composer

Tommy Zwedberg

Title

Merz II : Tape music

Duration

10 minutes 30 seconds

Composition year

1982

Information

Identification number

101155

Record Label

Svensk Musik Swedmic AB
Box 17092
Stockholm
Phone: 08-783 88 00
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.svenskmusik.org

Format

RECORDING

Reference to physical copy

E-D09:5

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