OPUS INCERTUM

2017-18

OPUS INCERTUM
for trombone and percussion
Instrumentation: trombone, percussion (xylophone, crotales, 3 skin instruments, prepared tenordrum, pedal bass drum, 7 metal objects, seed pod chimes, sleigh bells (or similar e.g. Kagura suzu 神楽鈴), 3 temple blocks, prepared log drum, sandblock and 3 pair of resonant instruments e.g. glass bowls, gongs, cow bells, etc.)
Premiere: 15 September 2019, Gothenburg; Ivo Nilsson-trombone, Jonny Axelsson-percussion
Duration: approx. 25 minutes
Review (DN, in Swedish): Click to read review on DN
Score: Buy score at BabelScores!

Program note:
OPUS INCERTUM

The Latin title has a dual meaning: uncertain (art)work and a term for a Roman masonry where the wall consists of irregularly placed stones of different sizes and materials.

The piece can be divided into 9 “blocks” of material placed next to each other. Parts of these blocks are clearly linear and through the progress of the piece gradually reveal an underlying acceleration. Others are more sublime, fragmentary, atomized, grumbling, private and uncertain: intensely focusing on details.

The different blocks may also be heard as different types of time: “now-time” which is divided ad infinitum into something that has just happened and something that will happen, constantly flying in both directions simultaneously; “cyclic time”, filled with states and movements of objects; “material-bound time”, the temporality of the concrete figure. Sudden changes in structure, perspective and direction.

The work as a transition between solely imperfections.
The fragment attracts and promises something else.
Layers are laid over layers, “strata super strata”.

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