Lithuania
Integra Commission: Eclissi
Duration: 15:02
Resources: Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass, Electronics and Plexiglass Boxes
Electronic Specification: Live Electronics
Integra Ensemble: BCMG (United Kingdom)
Integra Research Centre: Malmö Academy of Music (Sweden)
Website: www.janulyte.info

Janulyte Integra by IntegraLive

Programme Note

Eclissi (2007) for violin, viola, cello, bass and live electronics is a slow harmonic, textural and timbral metamorphosis of one single chord. Musicians perform in a soundproof plexiglass installation – a sort of magic ‘soundproof music box’ which is illuminated by changing light from its inside, creating the effect of a shadow theater of the musicians’ motion. By means of electronics, acoustic-visual fictions are created: audible sound (which is picked up to be amplified by the computer) does not necessarily correspond to the bow gestures that are being followed by the audience and vice versa. Both parts, instrumental and electronic, are based on individual regularly pulsating rhythms, thus generating a multilayered counterpoint of different pulses. For the acoustic instruments, this creates an effect which is rather abstract: non-coincidental variation of the different sonic parameters (dynamic, timbral, harmonic and textural) leads to the production of sounds which don’t appear to correlate with the rhythms of the bow motion. Speaking more metaphorically, these very silent, almost inaudible pulsations could remind us of the mysterious phenomenon of white dwarfs – stars in the last phase of their existence, which are a research object of my father, astronomer Rimas Janulis.

Biography

Justė Janulytė studied composition at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Milan “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory and in the masterclasses of Prof. B. Kutavičius, O. Balakauskas, H. Tulve, L. Francesconi, and A. Solbiati.

Janulytė’s music has been performed in Europe, the USA and Canada by (amongst others): The Lithuanian National Symphony; Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice (Venice); Gothenburg Opera Orchestra; Orchestre de Flûtes Français (Paris); Sinfonietta Rīga; Lithuanian Chamber and St. Christopher Chamber orchestras; Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; Ensemble Bit20 (Bergen); Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir; The Danish Radio’s chamber choir – DR Vokalensemblet; Quasar (Montreal); Xasax saxophone quartets (Paris); and cellists Anton Lukoszevieze (UK) and Francesco Dillon (IT).

She has participated in various festivals, such as World New Music Days (Sweden, 2009); Musikprotokoll im steirischem Herbst (2009, Graz); La Biennale di Venezia (2008); Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2008); Gaida (2005-2007); and Jauna muzika (2007, 2009).

White Music for 15 strings (2004) and Textile for orchestra (2008) were awarded as the best chamber and symphonic pieces of the year by the Lithuanian Composers’ Union. In 2009 Aquarelle won the 1st prize (in the category of composers under 30 ) at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Since 2006 Juste Janulyte has been teaching contemporary music at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. She has also written reviews and articles on music. She lives and works in Vilnius and Milan.

The majority of the works by Janulytė are written for ‘monochromatic’ ensembles (e.g. 4 flutes or saxophones, 15 strings, 2 pianos, etc.) and comprise slow metamorphoses of textural, dynamic, timbral and ornamental gestures. While balancing between the aesthetics of minimalism and sonorism, Justė Janulytė creates acoustic metaphors of optic ideas (for example, Silence of the Falling Snow (2006); Textile (2008); Aquarelle (2007); Elongation of Nights (2009)) and investigates the visual nature of musical phenomena in works where sound and image are fused together (Breathing Music for string quartet, live electronics and air sculptures (2007); Eclipses for violin, viola, cello, double bass, live electronics and soundproof glass installation (2007); Sandglasses for players, electronics and multimedia, (2010).

NB

This piece was composed during the first phase of the Integra project and as such does not utilise the Integra:Live software.