Crazy times

I´ll be very busy untill the 7th of december. So many deadlines lining up! No time to write more...

Burned Alive : 1st real rehearsal

Great rehearsal today with Siwan Mair Rhys and Ricardo Gosalbo of my new piece for 2 pianos: "Burned Alive" I´m very optimisic for the premiere the 30th of this month.


The piece for Elektra Ensemble is also coming along nicely. I´ve been researching extended techniques for cello and violin. Very litle time to go though, 10 days, so it´s a race. But I´m sure it will be ok (Þetta reddast einhvernvegin, eins og alltaf). Here is a page from my sketches: (Yes , I like taking picture)

Darbuka !

For a few days now I´ve been seeking inspiration to arabic rythms and then in perticular from the Darbuka drum. I´m seeking ways to transform the groove into notation for other non-percussion instruments.

Here are some videos I think are great:

The Photo Shoot

I wanted to share with you 5 of the pic´s from the session with:

http://www.raphaellephotography.com/

A big "thank you" to her for a job well done

Wich one is your favorite? (comment below)

Housewarming post / New blog address

Welcome to my housewarming post!

I took the radical decision just now about changing my blogspot address to helgiingvarsson.blogspot.com from helgirafn.blogspot.com

My Icelandic friends might think that´s strange but the reason is quite reasonable. After I moved to London I´ve found that "Rafn" is quite the "tongue twister" for the avarage non-Icelandic person.

And since I intend to go on a publication spree sooner than later, this change is in the nick of time.

Some people might not find my page at first but if they are true believers I´m sure this news will reach them in time.

Also , I´ve added SoundCloud player here on the left, feel free to listen to a sample of my work.

New looks! #2

Finally. The blog has new looks. I hope you all like it. Again, it´s not final since I´m in the process of making a new site, due sometime next year. More on that later.

The concert yesterday was good. Rod Yu performed "Syndadansinn" for a good crowd so I´m happy. Next up, "Burned Alive" for 2 pianos. Premiere: 30th of this month.

Elektra ensemble

I have 2 composers society projects going on right now.

"Society of new music" has a consert on this wednesday with works after composers studying in Guildhall school. Rod Yu will perform to 1 new and 1 old piece for piano written by me.

The pieces are : "Syndadansinn"[2008] and "One week"[2011].

Everyone is welcome and entrance is free.


Then The new composers society (Nýtt Tónskáldafélag) in Iceland is working on pieces for Elektra Ensemble

The instrumentation is a quintet for Flute/piccolo, Bb/Eb Clar., piano, violin & cello. My idea is to use influences from Arvo Pärt and Jón Leifs.



The consert will take place as a part of "Dark music days" (Myrkir Músíkdagar) , a classical music festival in Iceland at Reykjavik´s Art Museum in 26th - 29th january, 2012.

Here is a short text about the project written by Elektra (in Icelandic):

Elektra á Myrkum músíkdögum – Dagana 26. - 29. janúar 2012
Í dimmasta skammdeginu verður boðið upp á frumflutning á sjö verkum sem meðlimir Nýja tónskáldafélagsins hafa samið fyrir Elektra Ensemble. Nýja tónskáldafélagið er öflugur hópur ungra tónskálda á Íslandi sem eru að koma sér á framfæri. Elektra Ensemble er sannur heiður af því að styðja við bakið á þessu efnilega tónlistarfólki.

http://www.listasafnreykjavikur.is/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-2185/3362_read-28802/

Amma Lo-Fi / Grandma Lo-Fi [2]

Soon after I posted last post the great video: "Amma Lo-Fi" got deleted from Vimeo. Very sad if you didnt have a chance to see it.

I´m sure the creators had some good reason for it and that it will re-appear one of these days. Keep a lookout for it when it will.

Here is a further description at elbow music: http://elbo.ws/video/17079500/

-All the best
Helgi

Amma Lo-Fi / Grandma Lo-Fi

Wonderful music by a 70 year old first-time musician, you just have to watch this.

600 original songs in 7 years and 59 CD´s, not bad.

Unlikely influences (electro/house/techno)

My newest piece for 2 pianos is coming along nicely. Deadline for score and parts is tomorrow, monday 31st, but I have a chance to polish it until the end of november (wich I'll need to do, no doubt).

This weekend I cancelled all my social plans, wich I had been looking forward to to say the least, in order to meet the deadline.

This blog post would probably not exist if it werent for my dear 1-floor-down neighbours. Like clockwork, they started playing their club/house/electro wich I normally dont mind, except when Im trying to sleep or, like in this instance, compose.

"Well its saturday night and they want to have some fun" I thought, so I decided to suck it up, put on headphones and listened to Rachmaninov, who kindly helped me through this ordeal.



I struggled with a section in my piece that just would not obey my wishes or orders. After about 2 hours of trying to squeeze a certain motif in, I realised that my neighbours bass drum had somehow sneaked its way through Rach's fingers, mixing into the music and into my ears and had probably been there for awhile. Rather than getting annoyed by that I decided to use it.

You know how those bass drum beats go right? Steady tempo crothcets (quarter notes) on 120 beats per min. approx. ... Very "never-changing".

That gave me the idea for a bass note pedal of C2 (2 octave below middle C) in 3/4 and I threw away the chord progression motif I was trying to work into the music.

And now it works so much better. Absolutely not a very advanced bass line composition but it gave the harmony the boost it needed to drive the section onwards to the ending (the diamond notehead represents a tambourine beat).

So, sometimes ... less is more ...

Thank you noisy neighbour.