Artists' Residency: Sonorities Festival Belfast

Yonit Kosovske, Sarah Groser, and Xenia Pestova Bennett were artists in residence at the Sonorities Festival of New Music in Belfast, where they spent several days working on a new concert programme in the Harty Room of the Music Building at Queens University Belfast. Their residency, in collaboration with international composers featured on their programme, explored contemporary compositions and extended techniques featuring music written for harpsichord, viola da gamba, toy piano, and piano.

Repertoire for this project was selected by the Sonorities Festival of New Music in Belfast from an international call-out for scores. These compositions were performed in a festival concert on April 16th.

The performers gratefully acknowledge additional support from the PRS Foundation Beyond Borders scheme in collaboration with H.I.P.S.T.E.R., Historically Informed Performance Series, Teaching, Education and Research.

REPERTOIRE:

Child of Glass
by Elaine McCabe
Viola da gamba, Toy Piano, Piano, Harpsichord

Performing the Patchwork Personality (I am f*cking radiant)
by Janet Oates
Toy Piano, Harpsichord, Bell

Echo of Schönberg
by Anna-Kaise Meklin
Viola da gamba, Harpsichord, Smartphones

Sueño Tzigano
by Luis Fernando Sánchez García
Viola da gamba, Harpsichord

Viribvs Vnitis
by Karlheinz Essl
Toy Pianos, Harpsichord, Bells

Yovido
by Matías Padellaro
Viola da gamba, Toy Piano, Piano, Harpsichord

BAILE/home
By Xenia Pestova Bennett
Viola da gamba, Toy Piano, Harpsichord, Chimes, Audio

PROGRAMME NOTES:

Elaine McCabe – Child of Glass

Child of Glass reflects on the beauty and fragility of childhood. Inspired by the innocence, wonder and joy of youth, this piece portrays a child whose world is both magical and endangered by the overwhelming presence of technology in society today.

The toy piano gives voice to the child, its delicate timbre capturing both playfulness and vulnerability. Supporting this fragile character, the bass viola da gamba and the piano embody the strength and grounding of tradition and family. By contrast the harpsichord represents the ever-present force of technology, insistent and at times intrusive as it presses against the child’s world.

Through this interplay of sounds Child of Glass invites listeners to reflect on what is lost as modern technology transforms the landscape of childhood.



Janet Oates – Performing the Patchwork Personality (I am f*cking radiant)

When thinking about writing a duet for piano and toy piano at short notice, I immediately turned to a set of miniatures I had recently completed for toy piano, some with auxiliary instruments. This was for a call for works by Daniel Inamorato of the Toy Piano Sanctuary, in which the miniatures commemorated and celebrated the individual victims of the Pulse nightclub shootings (2016, Florida). I had thought carefully when writing them about how to convey personality through music. Using much of the original material from these pieces – some of which were already conceived as duets and canons – I started re-imagining them as facets of the same character, and considering the nature of personality as a performance, which changes depending on the interaction, purposeand situation. How can you convey the changing moods, and the layers of character, or the double-thinking about one’s own presentation to the world, or what is authentic and what is crafted? You’re never alone with a complex personality and a dominant inner monologue!

The subtitle comes from a slogan I have on a hoodie, purchased during a dark time in the Covid pandemic – I find it rich in meaning and highly personal.



Anna-Kaisa Meklin – Echo of Schönberg

I drew inspiration for this piece from Arnold Schönberg’s music, particularly his Klavierstück Op. 33a. My goal is to recycle the musical material and allow it to resonate in a new way. I want to honor the musical foundation of past composers and allow new musical creations to flourish from it. “Echo” refers to a deconstructive reading of Schönberg’s music. Rather than merely reproducing the original, I see echo as an opportunity to transform musical concepts through repetition. Using historical instruments, Schönberg’s music, and smartphones evokes the feeling of different time periods coexisting simultaneously. Simple harmonies resonate throughout the piece, creating space for deep listening between notes.



Luis Fernando Sanchez Garcia – Sueño Tzigano

Sueño Tzigano (Gypsy Dream) for harpsichord and viola da gamba evokes the mystery and spirit of Romani music through a contemporary lens. This four-minute tale blends the driving rhythm and harmonic color of Jazz Manouche with the wistful elegance of the French valse musette. The dialogue between the two antique instruments begins as a mysterious narrative, with the harpsichord providing intricate filigree over the gamba’s melodic lines. Their conversation gradually intensifies, transforming into a passionate and rhythmic dance that celebrates the timeless journey of the gypsy spirit.



Karlheinz Essl – VIRIBVS VNITIS

In this piece, two toy pianos are combined with a two-manual harpsichord — an instrument with a long history and an extensive repertoire, unlike the toy piano. Despite their differences, the two keyboards form a unit where their individual ‘weaknesses’ are counterbalanced by the other instrument. With “united forces” (so the translation of the Latin title), they are creating a new entity which results in a new sound, something that has never been heard before.



Matías Padellaro – Yovido

For piano, harpsichord and bass viol.

The structure of this work is inspired by the characteristics of popular songs, where melodies and rhythms are introduced, developed, and varied throughout the piece. The composition combines traditional techniques with contemporary ones.

The name “Yovido” refers to the word “llovido,” the past participle of the verb “llover” (to rain). The choice of “Y” instead of “LL” (yovido instead of llovido) is a reference to yeísmo rehilado, a distinctive phonetic feature of Rioplatense Spanish. In this dialect, “LL” and “Y” are pronounced with a marked vibration or friction, making them sound identical.



Xenia Pestova Bennett: BAILE/home

Commissioned by Yonit Kosovske
Funded by The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon and PRS Foundation Beyond Borders

I. Tales (Invocation)
II. Interlude 1
III. Wheels (Wild, Stifled)
IV. Interlude 2
V. Ghosts (Lamentoso)
VI. Islands (Coda)

Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your own mind. Something you dream about and sing about. Maybe it’s not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visit… – Hugo Hamilton, “The Speckled People”

Where is home? For millions of displaced people, this simple question is becoming increasingly difficult to answer. Home can be a place of nurture, safety, and ancestral roots, or a place of oppression, lack of opportunity, and loss. Homes can be lost but also found, regained, rediscovered, and made anew. Our sense of home could be intricately linked with nostalgic memories from childhood, while for musicians, home might be the territory and tactile association with their instrument.

BAILE/home (“home” in Irish) brings together personal histories of migration, memory and (be)longing in search of home. Baroque instruments are joined by a tiny toy piano on stage and enveloped with field recordings and spoken word to create an intricate and private dream world of sounds both old and new, humorous and serious, reflective and progressive.

The composer wishes to thank Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia, Yonit Kosovske, Yosuke Kurihara, Jochen Neurath, Brian Robinson and all the spoken word participants.

The fixed media soundtrack features voices by Xenia Pestova Bennett, Patrick Goyvaerts, Sarah Groser, Hugo Hamilton, Yonit Kosovske and Mairead O’hEocha.