Phonurgia, für Bratsche

The title takes its origin from 'Phonurgia Nova' by Athanasius Kircher published in 1673, a manual on methods of sound amplification using horns of different kinds. Phonurgia is a work involving an essentially spatial distribution of various sound sources, whether diffused over loudspeakers, through a gramophone horn, or played on a live stringed instrument - in essence, a 'play' between live and virtual musicks. I use the term here to indicate the socio-historical role played by early sound reproducers such the gramophone, that came to replace live salon playing or musicking (as exemplified by the string player) but were still the focal point of social gatherings together with their predecessors: music machines. Indeed virtual musicks are present in Phonurgia, both in the form of shellac and digital recordings, the latter re-producing a recording made on the wax cylinder of a phonograph with all of its additional 'noise' retained. The only 'clean' virtual music to be heard is a digital recording played at the beginning of the work. In confronting vastly different playback methods with each other I am addressing contemporary expectations of sound quality, where increasing refinement and standardisation assume an underlying aesthetic. What is it that has been refined and what have we perhaps ignored in the process? Early recordings reveal an undisguised rawness in their sound. It is exactly this immediacy, this undeniable imperfection of a sound source that I wish to acknowledge: the 'body' or physicality of sound in space.

Prelude
scene 1
scene II
scene III
scene IV
scene V

Bratsche solo

• Australian Music Centre, 2010