hYDAtorizon
Piano, string quartet (or sine waves).
Four small speakers playing a constant signal of sliding sine-tones are installed inside a piano where they create sympathetic vibrations with the strings. The piano picks out single notes from this slow flowing harmonic stream. The zen-like nature of this piece is inspired by the pre-socratic philosopher Parmenides who coined the oxymoron ‘hydatorizon’ (water-rooted) to describe his world view in both a material and metaphysical sense. He compares the mind to something like floating seaweed - groundless and drifting - to be rooted in water in one sense is to have lost one’s roots .
hYDAtorizon was recorded by Sem de Jong in ABMA studios, Amsterdam in November 1999 and released on Unsounds CD “a conSPIracy cantata” in December 2000. Version for Piano and String Quartet, recorded by Nora Mulder and the Zephyr Quartet in 2009 for the CD Antichamber.
performance history
- May 2000; Premiered by Marion von Tilzer (piano) and Yannis Kyriakides (electronics) at Dodorama, Rotterdam. Version for Piano and String Quartet, first performed at the RASMD, Glasgow (2004) and recorded by Nora Mulder and the Zephyr Quartet in 2009.