Lightness

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Lightness

SPEAK Percussion commissioned this semi-staged work, with support from the Danish Arts Foundation. LIGHTNESS was premiered on 14th November 2015 at the Zuricher Tage für Neue Musik, as part of the FLUOROPHONE production in which Speak Percussion performs a series of works exploring light sources as instruments.

In LIGHTNESS, the musicians play on amplified matches and matchboxes, sandpaper, water and sand - their sounds and musical materiality are the object of exploration, as well as the visual nuances of the flames as they burn.

LIGHTNESS is self-published, and the score is available via the contact-mail envelope on the left of this page.

REVIEWS:

"This extraordinary work uses amplified matches as simultaneous light and sound generators in a choreographed, dance-like formation that is aurally and visually hypnotic. The ephemeral nature of matches as both sound and light sources is emphasised by their essential unreliability – sometimes they don’t strike properly, or burn out faster than expected, lending an element of chance to the work that ensures that no two performances will be identical."
- Limelight Magazine

"Scored for amplified matches, Juliana Hodkinson’s Lightness explores an equally inventive sound world. Speak Percussion finds the rhythm in striking, igniting and extinguishing matches, sacrificing an immeasurable number of Redheads in the process. In the final sequence, the audience watches with bated breath as outstretched arms slowly pass a dwindling flame."
- RealTime Arts

"L’expérience sensorielle promise par Ictus (et ManiFeste) commence vraiment avec une œuvre de Juliana Hodkinson (Lightness) exécutée dans le noir. Des bruits, brefs mais rythmés, se répandent dans le silence. Longtemps avant que l’on ne découvre leur source : des allumettes grattées sur du papier de verre. Suit un ballet visuel (les flammes orientées dans l’espace par les trois interprètes) et sonore (souffles) qui respire l’évidence."
- Le Monde

"C’est avec la performance ludique autant que bruiteuse de Juliana Hodkinson (Ligtness pour trois musiciens avec allumettes, papier de verre, sable et eau) que son et lumière commencent à interagir sous le geste en relais des trois partenaires."
- Res Musica