Photos from last weeks of ´12

 Ann So-Hee, dancer, at LCDS (London Contemporary Dance School) in Your breath in my ear
by me and Esther Siddique.

Our dancers at LCDS in Your breath in my ear.

Richard Jones performing my piece Become for viola and piano 

at the Forge, Camden, last November.

Me being interviewed by Matthew Downes at the New dots concert.

Thoughts on harp writing

The harp´s distinctive appearance, it´s size and it´s place in music history, are assets which should be utilised when creating a stage piece like Your breath in my ear. All those aspects help to create a memorable theater experience before the performance even starts. As soon as audience members enter the hall and see the instrument on stage they get curious and the mood of the piece starts to infiltrate their minds, affecting each audience member differently. Once the actual performance does start then the harp´s soundworld blends perfectly with the world of dance, giving it a light and floating sensation.

Writing for harp could be compared to solving a puzzle like sudoku. You know where to start, and you know where you want to end, but in order to reach your destination you have to make many different parameters align. That can be a fun challenge and even though it´s often a journey of compromises to one´s music, the final outcome is always a plesant one in my experience.

"Your breath in my ear" - tech rehearsal

Here are some of pic´s/video from our tech´rehersal yesterday at the Place theater, london (WC1H 9PY). We will premiere "Your breath in my ear" tonight 8pm, second performance saturday 8pm. 

We are all very proud of this piece of ours.

 

Thomas Abela preparing the prepared guitar.

Esther Siddique, choreographer, photographing Victoria ("Tori"), dancer.

 Andrew Power, cellist.

Dance collaboration + Christmas Concert

Dear All, Guildhall's postgraduate composers and musicians have been working with choreographers and dancers at London Contemporary Dance School over the last two months to produce six new works, that includes me and my lovely choreographer Esther Siddiquie. With us are Ching Man on harp, Andrew Power on cello and Thomas Abela on guitar. These pieces will be given public performances this coming Friday (Dec 7th) and Saturday (Dec 8th) (free for GSMD students and staff).

More info here:

http://www.theplace.org.uk/14290/whats-on/london-contemporary-dance-school-guildhall-school-of-music-drama.html

 Tonight!  is our Christmas concert (more here: http://helgiingvarsson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/christmas-concert-northern-lights.html) 

Yesterday we had our dress rehearsal, and it was fantastic though I say so my self. We´ve already sold 160 tickets out of 200 and expect that the rest will sell by the door tomorrow. Here you can see our soloists, Björg Þórhallsdóttir (soprano) and Bragi Jónsson (bass), rehearsing with our accompanists, Hilmar Örn and Guðný Jónasar, at the Icelandic embassy last night.

 

Christmas concert: Northern Lights

Það styttist í jólatónleikana okkar þann 4.des. Öllu tjaldað til. Björg Þórhallsdóttir sópran (http://www.bjorgthorhallsdottir.com/), Bragi Jónsson bassi, Guðný Jónasdóttir sellóleikari, Hringur Gretarsson á trompet og auðvitað við í Íslendinga kórnum 

//

Our christmas concert is drawing near. Very festive lineup of soloists: Björg Þórhallsdóttir soprano (http://www.bjorgthorhallsdottir.com/), Bragi Jónsson bass, Guðný Jónasdóttir cellist, Hringur Gretarsson on trumpet + us, the Icelandic Choir, of course. Check out our flyer.

 

New Dots last night

Great times yesterday at new dots concert in the Forge, Camden. 

 New pieces by Gonçalo Gato, Ed Nesbit, Stephen Hicks, Lloyd Moore, William Dougherty and myself. Thanks to all who came to listen, full house and great atmosphere. 

Ligeti quartet, Richard Jones second from right.

Elizabeth Rossiter, pianist.   

 http://www.newdots.org.uk/musicians.htm

Richard Jones (vla) and Elizabeth Rossiter (pno) performed "Become". I dont have their recording yet, but here you can hear Jonathan Larson and Jason Anderson perform it in Februrary :

http://soundcloud.com/helgirafn/become-a-duet-1

New dots

Less than a week to go and just 10 tickets left ! New dots concert this tuesday the 20t. Doors open 7pm, we start 7:30. 

http://www.forgevenue.org/whats-on/eventdetails/20-nov-12-sounds-of-the-new-the-forge/

From the New Dots webpage:

 "New Dots connects emerging composers and performers of contemporary classic music and brings their work to new audiences. We are passionate about the future of ‘classical’ music, new music in particular, and we believe that today’s musicians and composers have something relevant to say. We are a new organisation and we welcome any support and encouragement. " 

 I hope to see you there.

 Best wishes

-Helgi    

Deborah´s demo album

2 days of 4 done for Deborah ´s demo album. Strings, piano and flute all done. On monday and tuesday it´s vocals, then post-production and electronics. Here on the photo we have Deb, myself and the very talented string quartet that helped us out. Hun Ouk Park, Oliver Cave, Moira Bette and Andrew Bennett. Hopefully the songs will be ready before Christmas.

Follow the process on Deborah´s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/deborahtyfieldofficial

Here are some more pics:

 Deborah and Siwan Rhys, pianist.

Me conducting the string quartet.

 

Rob Tyler, producer, twisting knobs.

 Evi Nakou, flautist, and Deborah Tyfield.

Mmus graduation, nov. 2nd

Minns að taka við Mmus skírteininu mínu frá Lord Mayor of London / 

Me accepting my Mmus certificate from the Lord Mayor of London.

Voiceworks Alumni Concert

Great times yesterday at Wigmore Hall, London. We performed my piece "Ground: A dialogue study". Huge thanks to my poet Irum Fazal, and to my very talented performers: Matthew Mcguigan, Claire Grace Candy, Joy Boole and Benjamin Harry Graves. You guys were great! And ofcourse, thanks to all those who came to listen.

Here is more information about my great collaborators:

Irum Fazal

Matthew Mcguigan

Claire Grace Candy

(Joy Boole)

Benjamin Harry Graves

NewDots: small interview

New dots (http://www.newdots.org.uk/), who are producing a concert this November 20th, at the Forge, Camden (http://www.forgevenue.org/) with my piece Become (a duet) (later re-titled Castle In Air (Loftkastali) for viola and piano), interviewed me today over email. You can listen to the piece here: https://soundcloud.com/helgirafn/become-a-duet-1?in=helgirafn/sets/chamber-orchestral

• Which composers have been most influential on your work?

-For "Become (a duet)" I was mostly influenced by Arvo Pärt, Ligeti, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff. Other composers that have influenced me is the Icelandic composer Jón Leifs, Dufay, Josquin des Prez, Abrahamsen, Salonen, Nielsen and jazz composers like Thad Jones, to name a few.

 

• Outside of music what fascinates you?

-Cycling is somewhat of a hobby and being outside in the countryside is very important to me. That´s where I recharge my batteries. I still havent combined these two interests and cycled in, or to, the country. That´s  something I should do next spring.
 

• How would you describe your music?

 -I´m still working on my personal style, but I became significally closer to it last term with pieces like "Become (a duet)" and "Penelopeia" for pierrot ensemble and bowed piano. I´d rather not introduce a half-cooked phrase at this time. Stay tuned.

 

• What are you currently working on?

-This term I´m starting concept work for a new opera which will be produced by Guildhall, School of Music and Drama and performed sometime in the fall of 2013 or spring 2014, most likely in the Courtauld Gallery, London. (Update: premiere confirmed July 12th 2015, Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, 4:30pm (semi-staged). 2nd and 3rd performance at the Tété-á-Tété: Opera festival July 30th and 31st, Westminster Kingsway College Theatre 7:45pm).

Voiceworks alumni concert

My first concert of the academic year will be this wednesday, november 17th, 5:30pm at Wigmore Hall, London. Free entrance, 5 new and interesting songs performed. 

 

http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/productions/voiceworks-alumni-concert-31138

My group will be performing "Ground: A dialogue study" for soprano, tenor and 3 clarinets. Music by me and text by Irum Fazal.

Okkar á milli

Nei hvur ... ég var í útvarpinu í morgun. Nánar tiltekið í viðtali í "Okkar á milli" á Rás1 með Sigríði Pétursdóttur. 

 Hér er hægt að hlusta http://www.ruv.is/sarpurinn/okkar-a-milli/10102012-1

English:

I was on the radio this morning. A 40 minute interview about music and life in London. The interview is in Icelandic.

Skuggablóm - ready to go

My, and my friend´s Árni Kristjánsson´s, song cycle book Skuggablóm (Shadowflowers) is ready from the printers. We start with quite the small edition to begin with for promotion purposes in Iceland. As of now it´s only available in Icelandic, but who knows, maybe we´ll make an English version sometime in the future.

Here you can see the cover, made by Eyþór Páll Eyþórsson (Eythor Pall Eythorsson), and I for one think it´s a very captivating design.

Recording of all the songs is being planed sometime in this academic year. For those interested, a copy of the book can be ordered by emailing helgirafn@gmail.com

The prologue written by Árni Kristjánsson (in Icelandic):

Skuggablóm er ástarsaga Hrafns og Tinnu. Í upphafi
sögunnar hefur Hrafn nýlega kynnst Tinnu og finnst
hún engri lík. Þrátt fyrir að Hrafn sé hugfanginn af 
Tinnu veit hann ekki að hún á sér myrkar hliðar.
Það vita engin nema Tinna og Skuggablómin.

Þegar Tinna er ein ímyndar hún sér að hún búi í
dimmum kastala. Hún er drottning yfir verum sem
hún kallar skuggablóm. Blómin eru myrkar hugsanir
sem hún elur með sér. Tinna er svo djúpt sokkin í eigin
ímyndanir að fyrir henni eru skuggablómin orðin að
lifandi verum sem sjálfstæðan vilja. [...]

 

Double Reed News: Pan-dora

I am pleased to announce that in this autumns issue of "Double Reed News", The magazine of the British Double Reed Society, is an article about myself, and my bassoon/laptop piece "Pan-dora". Also presented is my friend Sylvia Lim and her solo oboe piece "Orée".

 One thing was missing in the article.
Mr. Meyrick Alexander´s review of Ruth´s recital and my piece:

A PREMIERE OF A NEW BASSOON PIECE

On June 1st 2012 Ruth Hardwick performed her fourth year degree recital at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in front of the external examiner Robin O'Neill and senior members of staff. 

Ruth played a nicely varied programme which included Vivaldi's Concerto F8 No7 in A minor, Sarabande et Cortege by Dutilleux, Solo by Vladislav Shoot, Gordon Jacob's Suite for Bassoon and String Quartet and the premiere of Pan-dora, the Uncooperative Machine by Helgi R. Ingvarsson.

As one of Ruth's former teachers, I was very attentive to her whole recital but it was Pan-dora which aroused the most interest as a new piece in the repertoire is always welcome.

The composer provided an explanatory note: the piece was created as a result of "his first attempt to set up a MAXmsp patch and instead of worrying that something might go wrong he decided to write the error into the music." Two players take equal precedence on the stage: the bassoonist and a laptop, the screen facing the audience. There are two microphones, one for each participant. The bassoonist begins the piece lyrically and then plays a loud multiphonic into the laptop's microphone. This stirs the machine into life and it begins to provide an accompaniment. All is well for a time but the piece continues as a battle of will between the two as the machine has a mind of its own, apparently.  The laptop's screen changes colour as the action progresses and the performance ends with the bassoonist storming off leaving the machine as the victor - a triumph of mechanics over emotion as the performer becomes exasperated.

The success of any performance of such a piece rests on the stage presence of the performer, as well as considerable playing expertise, and on this occasion Ruth's theatrical expressions and gestures had the audience in laughter throughout and a huge cheer greeted the end. The sounds emanating from the machine were well designed to be complementary to the instrument and I believe this piece is a useful addition to the number of pieces involving extended techniques and versatility which are required by all colleges in their final recitals.

Meyrick Alexander

A copy of the score is included in the magazine. Here is the 1st page.
For the MAXmsp patch and the soundfiles contact helgirafn@gmail.com. 

Dartington, chapter 2

Dartington, chapter #2: The Advanced Composition Course

Jack Symonds working on his composition "Sunless Communion"

Advanced Composition course 2012 from left: Ben Ashby, Helgi R. Ingvarsson, Will Handysides,

Detlev Glanert, Chris Birch, Jack Symonds and Michael Cutting.

The Composers Ensemble rehearsing our pieces. Ahran Kim (flutes), David Campell (clarinets), 

Alexandra Wood (violin/viola), Adrian Bradbury (cello) and Simon Limbrick (percussion).

Jack Symonds conducting.

Me and Detlev Glanert at rehearsal.

Conductor Ben Gernon and me discussing my piece "The Distance Between Us".

 Naturally we had a few drinks after the concert

 Ben Ashby working on his composition "In memoriam Charles Michael"

 Lesson with Detlev Glanert

Ben Ashby analysing a orchestral piece by Chris Birch

From Paddington to Dartington

Dartington, chapter #1: "From Paddington to Dartington". 

 So I made it to Dartington after 3-4 hour trip with some equally exciting and stressful moments on the train when I almost forgot the name of my stop. Thanks to very accurate descripion from DISS (nice acronym btw for Dartington International Summer School) I did manage to narrow the options down to 1 stop: "Totnes". Seeing loads of people get off the train carrying violins and cellos helped too. After checking in, a short introduction session and dinner, me and my new mates sat down at the local pub. Later in the evening it started pouring down. Sitting under a tent in pitch dark, pouring rain with an occasional thunder drinking beer is very cozy. First session of the Advanced Composition Course is today at 11am.

 

Skuggablóm á leið í prentun

Sönglagaheftið Skuggablóm er tilbúið og fer í prent í dag eða á morgun. Kærar þakkir til Árna Kristjánssonar fyrir handrit og textagerð, Eyþór Páls Eyþórssonar fyrir uppsetningu og hönnun, Hrannar Þráinnsdóttur og Kristínar Einarsdóttur og fl. fyrir prófarkarlestur! Ég get varla beðið eftir að handleika gripinn síðar í vikunni. Hægt er að panta eintak á helgirafn@gmail.com

Wreckage of Dreams: A mini opera

I´m having a wonderful time back in Iceland this summer. Meeting friends, fishing, partying and tanning (yes, tanning in Iceland. More than I ever did in England).

But the pen is always close. I wrote a mini-opera to submit to ENO´s mini operas competition (http://www.minioperas.org/). The thing is that I also needed to polish my Mmus composition folio for my viva voce this september, so I only had 2 weeks to write it, 2 day to rehearse, 1 day to record and 1 day to edit it. I´m pretty proud of it. It would not had been possible if I did not have great friends who were willing to help me out with a moments notice.


Go check it out here: http://www.minioperas.org/composer/wreckage-of-dreams-13/

ENO (English National Opera) will choose 10 soundtracks, from 130 entries, to continue to the next round August 6th.

Huuuge thanks to:

Man: Helgi R. Ingvarsson
Woman: Guðrún Matthildur Sigurbergsdóttir

Spoken word: Jenný Lára Arnórsdóttir & Haraldur Ágústsson

Choir: Guðrún Matthildur Sigurbergsdóttir, Jenný Lára Arnórsdóttir, Haraldur Ágústsson & Helgi R. Ingvarsson.

Piano: Matthildur Anna Gísladóttir
Cello: Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir.

Next up:
Small trip to Akureyri, Iceland. And then finishing my Mmus composition folio.

---

More information about the opera:

"Wreckage of Dreams" is a mini opera, based on Shaun Gardiner´s script (http://basement-garden.co.uk/). The opening reads:

"The scene, lit only by the moon, is a small boat, adrift on the sea with a dead engine. A large number of refugees lie on the raft: they swamp it, almost concealing the shape of the hull. It is as if a mass of bodies floated on the sea. They have been adrift for fourteen days, and are dying of thirst and starvation"

This music/soundscape is a music/soundscape piece where I try to bring the audience into the world of the sea´s unpredictable currents, where the waves can be both gentle and aggressive, using only a piano, cello and 4 voices along with a few post-production effects. A larger orchestration could easily be created from this reduction. Although I treated Shaun´s script quite freely I was very intrigued by everything he wrote (written late june - july 23rd 2012).

Wisdom

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Pan-dora: the report.

Pan-dora was written for the bassoonist Ruth Hardwick and premiered at her final recital, June 1st 2012, at Guildhall, School of Music and Drama, London.

Pan-dora is meant to be a theatrical piece of music and performed as such. Bassoonist walks on stage to his/hers 2 microphones. 1 connected to the main sound system (Mic 1 (Mic 1 is optional, depending on the venue)), the other connected to the laptop (mic 2). Mic 1 is the performer´s main mic and all music should be played into it, except for the multiphonics in bars 8, 21, 34, 42 and 55. Those should be played into Mic 2 as a triggering material for the laptop. The laptop´s software (MAXmsp) will be programmed to sense all incoming signals over a certain threshold as a trigger to play the appropriate sound file (first three are sound files, the last one is a beat, generated by putting together six different bassoon sounds ranging from a few ms to a whole sec.) to accompany the performer for a few bars. Once the sound file in question reaches it´s end the performer is, "unexpectedly", left alone playing the music. This is such a shock to the performer that she/he looses concentration. After stopping she/he

then needs to restart the playback by playing another multiphonic into Mic 2. This become quite frustrating since it was "not meant to happen".

Hence the subtitle: The uncooperative machine.

In the case of a multiphonic not triggering the playback the performer should repeat the multiphonic until it does. Except for in the last bar, there the multiphonics should be played as written.

The piece ends with the 4th unsuccessful attempt to make the CPU cooperate. The performer needs to accept that this performance is over, though it may be against his/hers will. How it ends is up to the artist. Here are some ideas: Running off stage or bowing in shame. For the more extreme bassoonist one could even destroy the laptop in a rage, an old dummy CPU could be used for that.

Additional props/costumes would make this piece even more entertaining to watch.

"Pan-dora was the composer´s first attempt to set up a MAXmsp patch and instead of worrying that something might go wrong he decided to write the error into the music. The result is a theatrical composition whereby the bassoonist and laptop are to be treated as equal performers. Unfortunately the laptop does not cooperate quite as expected."

-       from the premiere´s programme.

Today the piece is approx. 3 minutes and is due to become longer as it get´s revised in the near future. Also it´s the composer´s intention to incorporate a more advanced graphic/visual aspect: everytime the performer triggers something, you dont only hear a playback, you also see a visual reaction to what is taking place. You could say you would see the detailed emotions of "Pan-dora" as she plays the loops/music/beats. How that will be portrayed has not yet been decided and will be workshoped with a designer in due course. Some visual aspects can already be found in the current patch, but they are very basic, and would hardly be convincing during a large scale performance. Even so, those basic visual aspects worked very well during the premiere and gave it that extra theatrical sparkle.

Here is a video demonstration of the patch:

http://screencast.com/t/9v2dV4zL23

The plugins I use can be downloaded from here:

http://mda.smartelectronix.com/

Best wishes
-Helgi R. Ingvarsson

Wigmore Hall: "Ground" premiere.

It´s been a while, but we, me and my voiceworks group, premiered our piece "Ground: a dialogue study", for 2 singers and 2 trombones, wednesday May 25th at Wigmore Hall.

It went well and we are all pleased. Just being backstage in that building was a great experience, not to mention being on the actual stage. My first feeling, when walking of the stage after having performed it for a decent crowd (great audience by the way), was that I wanted to go back on and perform it again. So at least I had fun conducting it.

At this point it´s hard to look back objectively. Hearing the recording would help a great deal. I do hope we´ll receive it sooner than later.

Now I have less than 4 hours to finish "Penelopeia" for Chroma and write a 1000-2000 word report about "Pan-dora: the uncooperative machine" and the MAXmsp patch I made for it. Better get on that...

Pan-dora, the uncooperative machine - Premiere

The premiere of "Pan-dora: the uncooperative machine" was a great success last friday at GSMD. Ruth Hardwick performed it with great professionalism and portrayed the theatrical scenery well (pic: Ruth rehearsing day before concert).

There will hopefully be a second performance in the end of June and ofcourse I´ll post all relevant information here. The plan is the record it, both video and audio, at that occasion. An audio recording would not suffice since the piece demands quite the dramatisation on behalf of the performer.

Today the piece is approx. 3 minutes. Once I get a chance to revise it it will no doubt be longer (somewhere between 5-10 min.) and I intend to incorporate a more advanced graphic/visual aspect into it. So everytime the performer triggers something, you dont only hear a playback, you also see a visual reaction to what is taking place. You can see the detailed emotions of "Pan-dora" as she plays the loops/music/beats. How that will be portrayed has not yet been decided and will be workshoped with the appropriate designer. Already I do have some visual aspects in the piece, but they are quite basic. Still, they give the performance that extra sparkle.

The MAXmsp patch worked perfectly, and as the final project for my electro-acoustic elective I´ll be handing in a short report, 1-2 pages, explaining the process and functions. I intend to share that report here on my blog in due course along with a video tutorial. For now, you can view my patch as a png file as it looks to today (presentation mode):

Diary of a dramatic composer...

Diary of a dramatic composer... 
June 2nd, 2012: 

I´ve been putting it off for a while continuing with my Chroma composition, with only 9 days to go today towards the deadline I decided it was time to finally tackle it.

After struggling with the opening for a whole day I gave up and deleted it (with theatrical gestures I might add) and started over. 2 hours later I had a new opening but then decided to listen to the old one again, just for kicks (recorded live at a workshop 2 weeks earlier). That´s when I decided to use the old one after all, with some alterations. But now I cant find the right backup score so I´ll have to write it up again completely.

Thank god for my old print out.

Productive day? Hell yeah! (warning, sarcasm)

Here is a tiny bit of the workshop with Chroma where they played my sketch.

Short sketch (mostly strings) - nota bene: first time rehearsal

Bless og ekkert kex!
-Helgi

The intense week is behind me

Last week was quite intense, and just as rewarding.

Monday: conducting test (see here)

Wednesday: voiceworks concert at Wigmore Hall where me and my group premiered my piece Ground: A dialogue study and it was good. More soon.

Friday: 6 hour workshop with Chroma ensemble, conductor, fellow students and professors. Each Mmus student presented sketches for their final project written for Chroma (pierrot ensemble: Flute, Clairnet, Piano, Violin, Cello). Extremely helpful and interesting but one was quite exhausted afterwards. Here are 2 pics with the ensemble trying out the bowed piano part in my piece Penelopeia. It was chaotic at times, but we managed to figure out some good solutions to better the logistics of the piece. It was a very difficult sketch to play as a group though the parts were quite easy, so I´m very thankfull for Chroma´s professionalism, understanding and patience (http://www.chromaensemble.co.uk/).

Here is a short clip from the workshop:

Workshop clip

Saturday: We, The choir of Icelanders in London, held our annual spring concert in The Parish Church of Saint Mark near Primrose Hill, London. The programme was put together of various classic´s of icelandic folk and choir music. I arranged one of the songs for us to accompany Bragi Jónsson, bass vocalist, currently studying at the Royal College of Music and celloist Guðný Jónasdóttir studying at Royal Academy of Music.


Nótt (arrangement) by Helgi Ingvarsson

Afterwards we went to Primrose Hill to toast and celebrate and enjoy the sun. A great end to a great week.