| Naumann
Travel Grant: report (October 2000) |
10/2000 |
Report of the actions
of the Académie Desprez for
Des Orages
Project for a musical
composition for glassharmonica and recorded electronics created
with the sound of Drottningholm Slottsteater's wind and thunder
machinery
October 2000
This document gives a report on the
actions carried out by the Académie Desprez to contribute to
the composition of Des Orages, for glassharmonica and
recorded electronics; this support related to the first step of
the composition, which consisted in recording the wind and
thunder machines of Drottningholms Slottsteater.
The request for support, having been
accepted by the Académie Desprez, took the form of a travel
grant offered to the candidate and given the name of J.-G.
Naumann, in reference to the XVIIIth century
composer. The project was presented by Gilbert Blin and Peter
Price to the Swedish members of the Académie’s board,
representing Drottningholms Slottsteater and Teatersmuseum, in
May 2000, and accepted by them.
As detailed below, the Académie and
the Theatre accurately followed the steps of the preliminary
project and granted the beneficiary their support throughout his
voyage.
Drottningholms
Slottsteater :
Agreement for
recording in situ
Without existing recordings appropriate
for the musical project, the direction of Drottningholms
Slottsteater gave its agreement for the realization of in
situ recordings.
Académie
Desprez :
Travel grant
According to its 2000 action
plan, the Académie Desprez offered Rémy-Michel Trotier,
the beneficiary, a travel grant.
A Paris-Stockholm return
ticket was offered to him; the purchase of the ticket was
financed on the own capital stocks of the Académie,
representing an expenditure of 2026 FF, including airport taxes
and insurances.
The lodging of the beneficiary
in Stockholm was ensured by a friend of the Académie.
Drottningholms
Slottsteater :
Organisation of the recording
The organisation of the
recording itself was ensured by Åsa Tillman,
Production Planning Manager at Drottningholms Slottsteater,
under the direction of Per Forsström, the
Theatre’s Director.
A sound engineer was committed:
Rune Sandvall works with the Swedish Radio but
knows the Theatre where he already came several times to carry
out recordings. With him the team of the Theatre reserved one
working day and negotiated a very preferential tariff covering
the hiring of the hardware and his own remuneration; this
expenditure has been left to the composer.
Drottningholms
Slottsteater :
Carrying out the recordings
Course of the session of recording
The recording was carried out
on October 5 2000 at Drottningholms Slottsteater; one day had
been reserved.
With Rémy-Michel Trotier, ,
were present: Per Forsström, Åsa Tillman, Rune Sandvall,
assisted for the installation of the hardware by Matts
Boman.
The machines were handled by
the composer, assisted by Åsa Tillman for the sequences
requiring to play the two instruments together.
Recording equipment used
The hardware used identical to
that was described in the preliminary draft, except for the
"dynamic" microphones, considered to be useless. The
selected multitrack tape recorder was the most widespread model
and the transfer on hard disk should not be a problem.
The recording was delivered on
numerical 8 tracks cassette:
- tracks 1 and 2: close wind
machine;
- tracks 3 and 4: close
thunder machine;
- tracks 5 and 6: from the
auditorium;
- tracks 7 and 8: mix with
delay = 45 ms for the wind, 60 ms for the thunder.
The mix realized by Rune
Sandvall was also recorded on DAT.
Recorded sound material
45 min. of sound material have
been recorded, cut in sequences according to:
- wind machine: simple
movements;
- wind machine: combined
movements;
- thunder box: simple
movements;
- thunder box: combined
movements;
- together: long sequences;
- wind alone machine: long
sequences.
Drottningholms
teatermuseum :
Complementary research
Complementary research was
undertaken by the composer during his stay, at the Library of
Drottningholms teatermuseum, with the assistance of the team of
the Library directed by its curator, Inga Lewenhaupt.
It was possible to gather information relating to the
functionning and the history of the systems of baroque
machineries, whiwh proved useful for the project. In addition,
information related to the life and work of composer J.-G.
Naumann was found, to be used for a short biography.
Report by:
Rémy-Michel Trotier
Composer
Member of the Académie Desprez
Beneficiary of the Naumann Travel Grant
|
