"Here is the essence of the art of composing: the ability to conceive music in architectural terms, as a shaping of sound through time. The most stunning thing about Hildegard’s creations is how they demarcate structure through a single melodic line. (Bach accomplished the same feat in his pieces for solo cello and solo violin, but he had the advantage of four strings.) This past fall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented a multi-composer event titled “Electric Fields,” during which the soprano Barbara Hannigan gave semi-operatic renditions of two Hildegard chants—“O vis aeternitatis” and “O virga mediatrix.” I’d heard Hildegard sung in church spaces, but it was a new thrill to encounter her in an auditorium built for Beethoven and Mahler. I thought of the latter’s comment about his Eighth Symphony: “Imagine the entire universe beginning to ring and resound.” With Hildegard, we hear the cosmos singing in one voice."

The NewYorker Magazine
Alex Ross

"I am the supreme and fiery force who sets all living sparks alight and breathes forth no mortal things, but judges them as they are. Circling above the circumscribing circle with my superior wings, which is to say circling with wisdom, I have ordered the cosmos rightly. But I am also the fiery life of divine essence: I blaze above the beauty of the fields, I shine in the waters, I burn in the sun and the moon and the stars. And with the airy wind I quicken all things to life, as with an invisible life that sustains them all. For the air lives in viriditas and in the flowers, and the waters flow as if alive, and the sun lives within its own light, and when the moon has waned it is rekindled by the light of the sun and thereby lives anew, and the stars shine forth in their own light as though alive."
—Hildegard von Bingen

"Electric Fields is a fascinating journey of outward and inward reflections."
­­San Francisco Classical Voice
—Jim Farber

INTERVIEW with DAVID CHALMIN
ELB PHILHARMONIE HAMBURG

What can the audience expect from the project »Electric Fields«?

Surprises

How did the idea for this project come about?

A few years back, we recorded some improvisations with Barbara Hannigan and bassist Massimo Pupillo. We had such a good time that the idea of creating a project “sur mesure” for Barbara, Katia and Marielle emerged. We then asked Bryce Dessner to join as we thought it would be a great balance to mix his music and mine for such amazing performers.

What was the collaboration with Bryce Dessner like? And how did the collaboration with Barbara Hannigan and Katia and Marielle Labèque come together?

Bryce and I work together on a wide variety of projects (compositions, productions, movie scores, etc…). One of our main collaboration of this past few years is the Dream House Quartet together with Katia and Marielle Labèque, where we compose and perform contemporary music for two pianos, two guitars and electronics. So we almost have a “band” approach when we get together, we share ideas, play demos to one another and freely express feedback to improve our work. It’s very inspiring for me to study his scores and listen to his music for he’s such an accomplished composer. I’m more of an experimental producer/musician and our musics are quite different but they also share a similar backbone I would say. For Electric Fields, a big part of the creative process started in the studio, where we did a lot of improvised sessions (with Katia, Marielle and Barbara) that we recorded and it gave us a lot of material to start creating.

The project includes compositions by Hildegard von Bingen, Barbara Strozzi, and Francesca Caccini. Why did you choose those composers?

Hildegard Von Bingen was the first and main inspiration for this project because of her music, obviously, but also because of the amazing character she was. She actually was at the center of our creative process. Her visions, her spirituality, her paintings and her connection to nature all felt very inspiring. Her music is also very contemporary in a way and it leaves a lot of space to create new musical landscapes using some of the melodies and words. Her music was our starting point but we moved quite freely around it to create our very own musical environment.

After some time, while brainstorming with Barbara, Katia, Marielle and Bryce the idea of integrating other composers emerged and we felt that, in very different eras of time, Strozzi and Caccini shared the same strength and focus as Von Bigen, so we decided to use there music too.

Beetween pieces by von Bingen, Strozzi, and Caccini works by Dessner, Hannigan, and yourself will be heard. What is the idea behind this sequence of earlier and newer music? How are works from different centuries with different soundscapes held together? And is there a difference in how you perceive and approach those works?

Electric Fields is not a recital at all. The music is imagined as a journey lead by three amazing performers. The composers are the thread to carry their performance on stage. We arranged earlier music in a very free way, sometimes grabbing a melody, or just some words in order to tell our story. Caccini might sound like an electronic track and Barbara Hannigan’s music may sound like an ancient chant recorded in the future! There is no chronology or desire to faithfully re-interpret specific pieces, it’s just an organic musical trip composed of material by all of us.

You manipulate the sounds live electronically. How exactly do you proceed?

I use modular synths (which in my case look like two big boxes filled with cables and little lights!) to generate and process sound. I get sound from both pianos and the vocals through microphones so I can manipulate them in various ways. A lot has to do with space and time (delays and reverb) but also granular synthesis which is a technique that grabs very small samples of a sound to create new tones. In addition to that there are some synth sounds that are used as an extension of the actual instruments.

How important is the space in which such a wide ranged soundscape unfolds live? What is interesting about this project being performed at Elbphilharmonie?

The sound in that project is very important and as we use electronics, it cannot be purely acoustic. We want the sound to cuddle the audience, they have to be surrounded by it, immersed in our musical world during the time of the performance. It is a mix of acoustic and amplified element, but luckily, we have a very good sound engineer, Guillaume Loubère, who travels with us and deals with our sound.

The Elbphilharmonie is an ideal place for this performance because the audience feels close to the stage but at the same time, the space is huge so you can have a very big and natural sound. It’s also special for us, because we’ve always had the best audience and the best concerts at Elbphilharmonie!

"And behold! In the forty-third year of my earthly course, as I was gazing with great fear and trembling attention at a heavenly vision, I saw a great splendor in which resounded a voice from Heaven, saying to me, ‘O fragile human, ashes of ashes, and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear. But, since you are timid in speaking, and simple in expounding, and untaught in writing, speak and write these things not by a human mouth . . . but as you see and hear them on high in the heavenly places in the wonders of God."
—Hildegard von Bingen

PHOTO GALLERY
© Daniel Dittus / Elb Philharmonie