Composers: Michael Edwards & Christian Tschuggnall
Our challenge was to compose 13 pieces whereby the ‘sound of berlin’ is performed only by using traditional orchestral instruments in non traditional ways.
We brainstormed with the producers, director and the orchestra as to what the topic of each video could be, and what sounds to feasibly focus on. We workshopped with the musicians, experimenting on how to create these sounds using only the orchestra.
It was important to compose sonically balanced pieces with a natural musical and dynamic arc, that could at the same time tell a story and be visually interesting.
We made a point of combining instruments as much as possible, often varying the size of the ensemble to achieve different focus and perspective. We especially explored textural and percussive ways of playing of string and wind instruments and what the combination of each extended technique could yield. This was made even more challenging by taking this out of the traditional orchestral performance context to incorporate very close and distant microphoning.
We enjoyed thinking beyond the instruments themselves to what else musicians could do to make noise in a concert environment. Sheet music, pencils. cases, chairs, whispering etc.
It was a pleaser to work with everyone involved from the Konzerthaus Orchester, 3B Productions, and Boris Seewals the director who did an absolutely amazing job. It was an honour to work with such a esteemed orchestra and wonderful to see how motivated the musicians were in exploring extended techniques and experimenting with their instruments and performing what we put on paper.
