Rodrigo Sigal: Twilight for bassoon and
electroacoustic sounds (2000)
(Comments provided by Karen Sandene)
"Four continuous movements exploring the same number of different
types of twilight (civil, nautical, astronomical and true night).
The piece explores these four stages within a sound world where the bassoon
is the leader and the electroacoustic sounds define the boundaries of the
relationships.
"Sound material for the recorded part and general musical ideas developed
from bassoon gestures that try to evoke the daily and almost imperceptible
process of light fading away and night covering the sky. Relationships
which work as structural points experiment with the fact that light - especially
sunlight - and sound are more closely related than we usually think.
The sunset is not necessarily a slow-moving process."
The previous
text was written by Mr. Sigal about his work, Twilight. The
piece is a collage of sounds, with the player interacting with a CD. While
the musician stands alone before the audience, he/she (she in this case)
is surrounded by a tapestry of instruments, voices and electronic distortions.
You will hear other bassoons on the CD, as well as oboes, saxophones,
flutes, contrabassoons, finger snaps, static and white noise, rocking chairs
and foices wailing. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if the live
performer is playing or if it's the CD, which can mean that the performance
is going well.
With a piece like this, that lasts roughly 13 minutes, it's difficult to
get a flow for what's happening or what point in the work has been reached.
The map included in the program should
help you to keep track of our journey. The different "Types of Twilight"
are indicated. The "shake"s, "ooh-ah-ah"s, "Sha!"s, etc., predominantly
represent what is heard over the speakers, and are taken from notes made
in my music while learning the piece. They work for me, and I hope
you find them useful.
About Mr. Sigal: Rodrigo Sigal (Mexico City, 1971) holds a PhD in
Electroacoustic composition from City University in London and a BA in composition
from the Musical Studies and Reasearch Center (CIEM) in Mexico City, and was
part of the composition workshop directed by Prof. Mario Lavista.
Since 1991 he has been working as composer, sound and recording engineer
in his private studio in Mexico and London, composing for dance, video,
radio and T.V. He currently lives and works in Santiago de Chile.
Visit Sigal's website at www.rodrigosigal.com