Venue and date (quadrophonic version): Ljubljana City Hall (right side atrium), Wednesday, 3 September 2025, 19:00
Composition by Ida Hiršenfelder
Performed by Ida Hiršenfelder and Urška Savič
Duration: 54 minutes
Year of production: 2025
About
The microtonal composition draws from the merge of psychoacoustic and zoomusicology as the human ear perceives far fewer microtones between intervals than, for example, birds. So humans, despite our musicality, do quite poorly regarding tonal recognition. Bowing a cymbal, unlike tuned instruments, offers an expanded range of frequencies and suggests bird-like listening. The composition creates a space for the psychoacoustic experience of oscillating sound waves enhanced by the listeners who alter the oscillating waves by moving through the space, thus actively participating in the composition. Attentive listening enhances the ability to perceive finer differences between intervals. A trained ear may perceive up to 20 intervals between C2 and D2, while the average untrained ear perceives far fewer, primarily due to frequent exposure to harmonies. Through its unfamiliar sound world, microtonal music evokes new emotional and cognitive responses, fostering new ways of listening and being with sound.
Compositional concept
- Microtonal composition for two performers, each bowing two cymbals by a set of two different bows (violin, bass) and three percussion instruments (frame drum, sea drum, rainstick). Drums are excited by a set of different sizes and shapes of rubber mallets and rotated. The score is written in sagittarian microtonal style. It contains aleatoric signs for the performers to use prescribed gestures ad libitum. The score is performed live for 54 minutes.
- The performance is recorded with static and rotating microphones. The recording is used to compose an 4-channel fixed media electroacoustic composition using acousmatic montage techniques.
Instrument choice
- Each performer plays 2 different cymbals
- The cymbal is marked with fundamentals and overtones that can be achieved with bowing. The markings are in two colours, corresponding to the violin and bass bow.
- Each performer plays three percussion instruments (frame drum, sea drum, rainstick)
- Each performer has a thunder tube, tingsha bells and other small shakers to be used ad libidum when specified.
Method of playing
- Constant bowing of cymbals (two different bows: violin and bass)
- Friction mallets on cymbals (eight different sizes and shapes)
- Friction mallets on frame drums
- Rotation of sea drum and rainstick
Acousmatic gestural techniques and energy models
Percussion-resonance, Friction, Accumulation of corpuscles, Flux, and Swirls and rotations
Method of recording
- In two acoustically resonant points in the space place two sets of omnidirectional stereo microphones suspended on rubber bands on a rotating mobile stand. Preferred microphones DPA or Lom Audio. Preferred recorder: SoundDevices MixPre series.
- Two cordial directional microphones in two acoustically resonant points. Preferred microphones: Sennheiser. Preferred recorder: SoundDevices MixPre series.
- Ambisonic B-format recording for reference. Preferred recorder: Zoom H2n.
Acousmatic montague techniques
delta sounds, attack substitution, interpolation, composite objects, cross-fading, connection through theme and variation
* All techniques of transformation (frequency, spectral, amplitude, time, and spatial transformations) will be applied to achieve a maximal phase interference of overtones.
Credits
Composition: Ida Hiršenfelder
Performers: Ida Hiršenfelder and Urška Savič
Production: ON Rizom (Nataša Serec) and ŠŠŠŠŠ | Institute for Spatial Music
Mentor in bowing techniques: Jaka Berger
Year of production: 2025
Special thanks: St. Joseph Church, Ljubljana (Damjan Ristić)
Supported by the City of Ljubljana, Department for Culture
Bios
beepblip (Ida Hiršenfelder) is a sound artist and archivist making psychogeographical spatial and ambisonic compositions, sound installations and sound walks. Her work primarily explores sound ecology and spatialisation, addressing themes such as the agency of non-organic others, non-human languages, and listening to the inaudible. She is a member of the Jata C group for bioacoustics and sound ecologies, the Clockwork Voltage community for modular synthesis, and the CENSE Central European Network for Sonic Ecologies. Her solo albums were published by the Kamizdat label. She frequently composes for contemporary dance, for which she received the Golden Lightning Award from Bunker Institute for soundscape in the 2023/24 season.
Urška Savič (Sava šumi) (1992) is a photographer, critic, radio artist, and producer. She graduated from FAMU (Academy of Performing Arts, Prague) in 2014 and earned an MA from ALUO (Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Ljubljana) in 2020, focusing on archival practices in contemporary art, for which she received the Prešeren Award. She has served as the artistic director of the Open Radio Investigative Art Platform R A D A R since 2019. She has been teaching at the ALUO Department for Photography and is a member of the Fotografija/Membrana editorial board. She is also a member of Kela photography collective, and writes reviews for 3rd program of Radio Slovenia – Ars.