Kaija Saariaho / Hristina Šušak

In Nymphéa my aim was to broaden the colours of string instruments and create music by contrasting delicate textures and shattering masses of sound. The basis of the harmonic structure is provided by cello sounds that I analysed with the computer, through the use of some personal computer programs. The electronic component of the piece consists of live transformations of the string quartet’s sounds in the concert. Some images that evolved in my mind while composing: the symmetric structure of a water lily, yielding as it floats on the water, transforming. Different interpretations of the same image in different dimensions; a one-dimensional surface with its colours, shapes, and, on the other hand, different materials that can be sensed, forms, dimensions, a white water lily feeding from the underwater mud. A poem by Arseny Tarkovsky – filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s father – also became a part of the sonic material during the compostion.

Kaija Saariaho

Nano II operates within a spectrum of very soft dynamics, sometimes barely audible to the human ear. Such an approach in some parts can also be referred to as having an ASMR effect. The idea is that through half an hour of listening to a very quiet dynamic spectrum, the listener enters a completely new dimension of listening and perception, and begins to notice elements that they would not have otherwise observed. Furthermore, individual instruments of the string quartet do not have independent roles in the musical flow but are treated as particles of the entire sound mass that is created. To support and emphasise the idea of a sound mass, some parts of the piece incorporate the voices of musicians to imitate the sounds of their own instruments. Another component is the use of amplification and a slight reverb as an acoustic element, which adds a spatial dimension to the sound mass.

Hristina Šušak