United Kingdom
Integra Commission: Frame
Duration: 15:00
Resources: Piccolo, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Percussion, Harp, Guitar, Vioin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Video (two screens), Live Electronics.
Electronic Specification: Delays, Reverb, Distortion, 10 Channel Playback, Clicktrack, 10 Channel Spatialisation.
Integra Ensemble: Athelas Sinfonietta (Denmark)
Integra Research Centre: IEM (Austria)
Website: www.alwynnepritchard.co.uk

Pritchard Integra by IntegraLive

Programme Note

Frame, for 14 musicians (who perform both live and on film), pre-recorded and live electronics was commissioned by Integra for Athelas Sinfonietta, with the electronics developed at IEM in Graz, Austria.

Making use of a single on-stage pillar to establish the connection between on-screen and live ensembles/environments, the set for Frame also consists of two on-stage screens. These are positioned along a diagonal axis, slanting away from the audience towards the back of the stage, so that the two-dimensional space defined by a single screen can be extended to a third. Within this setting, the sound is diffused through ten speakers, four at the front of the stage, four behind the audience and two ‘celestial’ speakers in the roof.

Frame brings the theatre of rehearsal to the stage; the stuff of this music is the stuff of music making – rehearsing, repeating, failing, correcting, exploring, transforming, performing. As the ensemble yields some of its most private moments up for public exposure they are transformed into acts of performance, celebrated as emblems of human endeavour – confirmation and celebration of life. But they are not given up to performance without resistance, without some sleight of hand, playfully undermining the act of performance itself. So the ensemble moves between real and synthetic acoustic spaces, between stage and screen, each interacting with the other, with a confounding manipulation of audio, stage and screen environments.

Live electronics: developed by Thomas Musil at IEM, Graz.

Biography

Alwynne Pritchard was born in Glasgow in 1968 and as a teenager began having composition lessons with her father, Gwyn Pritchard. She then studied with Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music, and later with Melanie Daiken, Justin Connolly and Michael Finnissy at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was awarded many prizes for her work. In 1997 she was awarded a research scholarship by the University of Bristol and in 2003 received a PhD in composition. In the summer of 2000 Alwynne was awarded a Visions of Norway scholarship for a two-month artist’s residency at the Kulturhuset USF Verftet, Bergen and later returned for an extended residency three years later. In April 2007 she completed a one-year residency at the Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Bavaria and is currently living in Berlin and London.

Over the last decade and a half Alwynne’s music has been performed by leading players and ensembles throughout Europe and America, including the Arditti String Quartet, Apartment House, The Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Christian Dierstein, The Duke String Quartet, de ereprijs (Holland), Ensemble Recherche (Germany), Gemini, Nicolas Hodges, Ixion, Kaida (Holland), John Kenny, Carin Levine, The London Sinfonietta, Lontano, Darragh Morgan, New Music Players, Nieuw Ensemble, Ian Pace, Jonathan Powell, Maja Ratkje (Norway), Reservoir, Elena Riu, Jarle Rotevatn (Norway), Sarah Nicolls and the Schubert and Uroboros Ensembles. As well as being regularly heard in London and around the UK, Alwynne’s music has also received performances in America, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Norway, and has often been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4, as well as abroad.

NB

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