Simon Steen-Andersen
BLACK BOX MUSIC
Premiere: Darmstädter Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, 23. Juli 2012
Oslo Sinfonietta, Håkon Stene
Black Box Music is scored for percussion solo, amplified box, 15 instruments and video.
The starting point is the classical soloist-conductor, only in this case, the conducting and solo part are one and the same. The setting is a traditional theatre stage with curtains, props and light; only in this case, the stage is also an instrument.
Black Box Music could be said to be a deconstruction of conducting and puppet theatre as well as an exploration and exploitation of the audio/visual relations inherent in conducting and staging. The “grand show” is in three movements, starting with ‘Ouverture’ and ‘Disambiguation’ and then finishing off with a festive, pompous, self-imploding ‘Finale’.