METAXIS
Orchestral Music Installation for deconstructed orchestra in an open space
Duration 30 min.
Instrumentation: 2+afl.2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbn / 4.2.2.1+btba / 3 perc / str (16.14.12.10.8
Commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa
The world premiere of the piece took place at the Reykjavik Arts Festival at Harpa Reykjavík on June 1st 2024 - videos below
About METAXIS:
METAXIS is an orchestral music-installation piece for deconstructed symphony orchestra that is spaced-apart in a foyer or an open space of a concert venue or at another suitable space or venue where the audience can walk around the space during the performance. The orchestra performs the work spread out in the open space as indicated, together performing the unified score.
From a musical perspective, in addition to the work’s purely artistic aspect, the idea is to give the audience an insight into certain distinctive core elements of the music. My own method and style of orchestration and progression is quite organically “holistic”, in that it might at times not be obvious how all the different parts come together to make up the whole. The music is often built as various layers of sounds, nuances and harmonies that move between instruments and groups and METAXIS provides a distinctive opportunity for the audience to perceive how these layers literally move between different locations in the space as the materials move between the groups and performers. The audience is also invited to take an active part in exploring the various elements, layers and perspectives in the musical language by literally walking within the musical landscape and to spatially explore how the various materials relate to each other and how they move between performers, creating not only a flow in the music but also a literal flow through the space.
This immersive aspect of the work provides an enhanced experience of orchestral presence and invites the audience to actively explore, engage with and get to know the various fundamental building blocks of the music from various perspectives with a journey through the musical landscape. I provide this insight into my own music because that is what I am positioned to do, but hopefully also offering visceral access to certain features of orchestral music in general, not least more recently written music.
The piece is in some respects on the border of being a concert experience and an installation experience and the title refers both to the space in-between dimensions and to simultaneously being a part of multiple dimensions.
The performance duration is approximately 30 minutes.
Reykjavik Grapevine - METAXIS interview
Video excerpts below taken from the world premiere of METAXIS with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eva Ollikainen and Ross Jamie Collins, at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in June 2024 at Harpa Concert House. Taken with one camera and the audio is captured through the camera mic only, therefore capturing the sound relative to the camera position at any given moment.
Photos taken by Rebekka Jóhannesdóttir at the world premiere of METAXIS, June 1st 2024
Video recorded by Baldur Stefánsson
Video edited by Anna Thorvaldsdottir