Hydrophilia Concert for 100 ships' horns on two ships
Audio-Art-Festivals,
Krakau 2011
The
mediaeval Wawel castle was an exciting background for the
concert of "100 sirens and two ships", as ist
was named in Krakau for the Audio Art Festival. Special
instruments were installed on two shiftiness ships, which
were transformed into swimming soundilands. The shiftiness
of the ships allowed a "dance on the water". In
the twilight the music started. The "horn concert"
is a musical performance extending through the wide-open
spaces of the landscape. Powerful instruments are required
in order to achieve a harmonious dialogue. The appropriate
instruments for such a concert consist of adapted ships'
horns and specially constructed compressed air pipes. The
original technical signalling objects have, after intensive
reconstruction, been transformed into musical instruments.
For the concert two locations were chosen at the Weichsel
river. At the beginning of the concert the two vessels had
at a distance of approximately one half kilometer. The blue
barge started with a musically "call and response"
piece and the red barge answered with the next piece. While
they are playing the ships started the dance on the water
with many movements and rotations. The choreography of 16
positions was created by Marjon Smit. Half the way, both
ships made a chaining maneuver and navigated together like
one ship.
In his concert Christof Schläger worked with different
musical structures.With refined variations and with the
interconnection of both soundilands Christof Schläger
created a musical structure with many voices.Through the
echo effects of the landscape the piece becomes a complex
3-dimensional structure which made the whole landscape resound.
