FP: Newton-Ensemble, Christian Utz (conductor) - Porgy & Bess, Vienna, October 2002
Commissioned by AsianCultureLink. Supported by SKE-Fonds, Austria.

Newton-Ensemble:

Heinz-Peter Linshalm, Clarinet / Petra Stump, Clarinet / Willi Schulz, Percussion /
Bernd Thurner, Percussion / Melissa Coleman, Violoncello / Tobias Stosiek, Violoncello


Defragmentation - For six instruments is an attempt to translate the structural and sonic characteristics of an electro-acoustic work into a composition for acoustic instruments. Based on ‘Defragmentation/blue’, a composition originally conceived as a sound installation, I tried to adapt my conceptual ideas about site-specificness and the relationship of sound, space and time in respect to the new possibilities - and limitations - of an instrumental composition. The aim was a realistic transformation of tonal, texutral, and structural properties of the electro-acoustic “template”, yet for a strictly acoustic setting. In fact, only the temporal dimension demanded severe modifications, the length of sections of the original composition had to be compressed, thus the duration of the resulting piece averages 19 minutes, which is approximately one third of the original composition. Six musicians were positioned surrounding the audience, instrument pairs always opposite of each other (diagonally). This specific spatial setting was chosen to reinforce psychacoustic effects like microtonal beatings and virtual combination tones which were essential properties of the original sound installation. Consequently, a (hidden) conductor was inevitable to give main cues and keep the performers “in sync”.

Bernhard Gal, 2002