marblepark (2022)

pf, tape
8 minutes

Written for Ensemble Mosaik/Ernst Surberg and commissioned with funding from the Berliner Senat. Premiered at the Betonhalle, Berlin in April 2022.

The field recording that forms the basis of marblepark was made in Schlosspark Charlottenburg, Berlin. I wanted to create an impossible space, so I passed this field recording through the reverberation patterns of several large echoey buildings. I imagined that the result of this process would be an approximation of what it might sound like if the Schlosspark was placed inside the Schloss itself — a park surrounded by marble. The piano’s role is to further musicalize the electronics, underlining the pulsating volume envelope that shapes the work, and extracting harmony from the sound of the reverberating park. The song that is heard near the end of the piece is the 1898 recording of Michael Balfe’s “I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls” sung by J.W. Myers.