WICOMB: "After the
very successful collaboration with several Swiss
musicians I entertained the possibility of
continuing what was established during their
residency. Unfortunately the time was just
enough to tackle problems and ideas surrounding
the commissioned pieces and other important
artistic differences and aesthetic goals had to
be left for another meeting. One of the
interesting aspects which came to the forefront
was with the piece Earthed which moved between
fixed and more aleatoric notation. They shared
their concerns briefly surrounding the
notational systems and a fresh project emerged
which had at its centre notational systems for
improvised music.
I just need to add that the piece Earthed
started off as a collaboration between Petra
Ronner and I and was based on her
improvisational ideas and technique. For that
reason the piece was always going to have a
strong aleatoric aspect to it. But as I worked
with the material by myself my signature started
to dominate the aesthetics of the piece and the
improvisational and open structure disappeared,
only leaving a few choice sections. This brings
me back to another aspect which will be explored
during the residency and that is finding a
balance between the musical goals of the
composer and improvisor. And for this situation
to run smoothly it is very important for the
musicians to know each other well as is also
stated in the pioneering article "Reacting"
(1970) of Vinko Globokar. The article focuses
especially on group improvising and the merits a
group presents when improvising. The ideal
scenario for improvising, is also subject matter
that is explained in depth in the article.
Petra is a solo artist and she suggested that I
make contact with ensembles to explore group
dynamics. I used the Swiss data base which lists
ensembles and shared my ideas via e-mail about a
possible project with chosen ensembles. A few
ensembles responded including Ums `n Jip, Potage
du Jour and Kontrabassduo Studer-Frey, which
showed interest and would like to meet and
collaborate. The ideal situation would be to
have as many as possible rehearsing sessions
with the ensembles (or whoever is available) and
have the luxury of trying out different ideas
and having constant feedback with experienced
musicians and to let their input have an ongoing
and immediate effect on the proposed
compositions. The selected ensembles could
roughly be devided into two groups, musicians
who are mainly improvisors (Potage du Jour and
Kontrabassduo) and those who are interpreters
also able to function comfortably in a more
improvisational sphere (Ums `n Jip). The current
idea is to create a specific Midi soundtrack,
using Sibelius software, with different
instrumental accompaniment for the two groups of
ensembles. The one notational version would be
quite exact for `Ums `n Jip`, while the other
would leave quite a lot of musical options,
leaning more towards the `free` improvisation
for `Kontrabassduo` and `Potage du Jour`. This
will create the possibility of practical
research between the two kinds of groups through
comparative methods.
The ideas of the project are crystalized in the
title, A[we]-struck-ture, which encompass, for
me, the two opposing directions in this musical
style. On the one hand you have the phenomenon
present in improvisation: intuition and
real-time generation of musical material
(awestruck by a musical idea; suggesting
spontaneity) and on the other the phenomenon
[more] present in composed/determinate music:
structure."
Pierre-Henri Wicomb was born in
Stellenbosch, South Africa in 1976. He started
taking piano lessons at the age of six. His
early attempts at composing started around the
middle of his primary school years. He enrolled
at the University of Stellenbosch in 1995 taking
composition as his main subject. During this
period Pierre-Henri had lots of interaction with
other art disciplines and was very interested in
the theatrical aspects surrounding sound
generation. This period was dictated by
performance art projects.
After completing his bachelors and honors
degrees he started his masters degree in
composition under the guidance of Hendrik
Hofmeyr at the University of Cape town. In the
year the degree was awarded Pierre-Henri
received a bursary to study overseas, from a
Dutch organization, NZAV. He also received the
Van Ewyck Stichting bursary during this period.
He was accepted at the Royal Conservatory in Den
Haag and studied there for 2 years under Gilius
van Bergeijk, Diderik Wagenaar and Martijn
Padding. During his studies he and a few other
composers started the choreographed-sound
improvisation group Woof . The group explored
the choreographed movement surrounding sound
generation using everyday objects. This theme
was later revisited in the experimental short
film Sounding.
In
Pierre-Henri`s music there is often the process
of `translating` abstract and philosophical
`ideas into musical structures. The interest in
improvising, which probably finds its origin in
his earlier semi-aleatoric pieces, is also
audible in his notated compositions. In these
pieces he is constantly striving towards an
uncomfortable familiarity especially in his
implementation of `harmony`. There is always the
dichotomy in his aesthetics between an
unsophisticated and delicate sound-world. An
analogy which he finds exciting is, the music
which would arise if amateur musicians were
improvising.
In 2005 he
started experimenting with Midi and specifically
the notation program Sibelius. Compositions,
which has such an absurd level of difficulty,
are `performed` by the program in a way which is
not always representative of the notation being
used and therefore a different sophisticated
electronic sound-world is produced. The idea of
using the software /Midi as a substitution for
real instruments is therefore overthrown and the
first piece from these experimentations was
Play.Playable.Playing. which premiered at the
Korzo Theatre, Den Haag 2005.
Pierre-Henri was chosen to work with the Asko
ensemble in 2006. He wrote a piece for them,
Polaroid, which was premiered at the Paradiso
Theatre in Amsterdam and also broadcasted over
the local radio station, Concert Zender. After
receiving one of the highest marks in the
composition department for his studies, the
Royal Conservatory nominated him for the
prestiges Huygens scholarship.
His music has also been broadcasted over Swedish
and South African radio stations and played in
Brazil, America and Switzerland.
After finishing
the first part of his studies Pierre-Henri had
to return to South Africa where he is currently
residing. He together with other South African
composers founded the new music ensemble EJNCP
which performs frequently. In Pierre-Henri`s
latest project he worked together with the swiss
pianist Petra Ronner (funded by Pro Helvetia) .
She performed his “Where Music is…” and
“Earthed” for solo piano, “live” mini jacks and
soundtrack at the International New Music
Festival in Durban (2010). Pierre-Henri was
recently chosen to do a reading and recording
session with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra in
Kwazulu-Natal of his orchestral piece Roads To
And Fro.
