Kaija Saariaho - Petals for Violoncello and Live Electronics

performed by Imke Frank, Violoncello and Gary Berger, Live-Electronics
27 November 2011 - Theater am Gleis, Winterthur, Switzerland

[@yvonnehanmusic]

Where my A-Level Music students at?!

[@benjaminherbst5313]

sup. i just started year 12 and i already hate my life with this set work

[@norimay3075]

Dying

[@stevenskinner998]

Eyyy final exam in a few months. SO not prepared.

[@shemmusic3279]

Yeye, loving it so far, but pretty stressful no gon' lie

[@cameronriley9121]

gang

[@saxgarcon734]

Lovely music to sleep to. So calming!

[@danettte]

you must have some weird dreams

[@willread9364]

I’m watching you Kyle

[@aaronboyle4824]

you need Jesus

[@omarg7702]

Nice to sleep to if you want nightmares

[@rafeverao4105]

So eerie, so beautiful, so terrifying, a marvelous display of the limits of electro-acoustic composition and musicianship. Very well played by Imke and Gary, bravo!

[@Felix-bv4mm]

0:00 A1 - Lento - free: single notes; glissandi; trills; tremolandi; bow noise 1:08 B2 - crotchet = 60: rapid demisemiquaver figures; quartertone chromatic figures 1:35 A3 - Lento - free: slow two-art texture over a D pedal 2:26 B4 - crotchet = 54/66/40: more conventional ideas with rhythmic focus, lots of normal to sul pont. moments, trills, glisses, identifiable agitated semiquaver double stopping, slurred semiquavers 3:15 A5 - Lento: slow two-part texture with high artificial harmonics 5:18 B6 - crotchet = 60: many variations on an idea heard at the start of bar/line 17/this section, LH pizz open C string, later low C becomes a bowed drone 7:10 A - Lento - free: concluding section with similarities to section 2, bow noise prominent, lots of tremolo

[@mastroper]

🎉

[@matthewrowell9963]

A level music gang where u at

[@oliverfloyd9417]

gang gang

[@plushbatfan]

R.I.P. Kaija Saariaho

[@oliverfloyd9417]

L

[@Sam.Gardiner]

She caused so much suffering

[@arashmooshekaf6283]

Listening to this music is like a torture, but exciting and awakening! It is scary and mysterious, so it awakens the courage and desire to search! It was impressive in general, especially since all these sounds and tunes were pulled out of one instrument by one person!

[@tuluran]

A Master piece, its wonderfull how with 3 simple efects you can have such an infinit palet of colors whit the cello. thanks to Kaija for this music

[@Famipun]

I went to the same school as Imke, just a few years younger. Back then I really admired her for her expressive way of playing the cello, her personality and her style. She hasn't changed!

[@gerardbegni2806]

Kaija Saariiaho loves particularly the cello and is eager to explore its limits with the support of a real-time electronics. The esult is absolutely astonishing.

[@wyrmyfuture]

Thank you Gary, for uploading this great and wonderful piece - both music and its visual performing touched me deeply!

[@mikeg2924]

Seems kind of ambient to me... super interesting, and all I'd want is some dance to go with it. Any choreographers out there?

[@rafeverao4105]

I can only imagine what choreography would be put to this, and how terrifyingly creative it would be.

[@MadMusicologist]

Thanks for uploading this jewel. This is a journey, not just a piece of music. Fantastic interpretation. By the way, written in 1988. It might be the year when she was visiting Darmstadt International Summer Courses - I as there as a student then.

[@mickpock]

ignore the nasty, hostile, ignorant remarks -- this is a good application of electroacoustic methods

[@MadMusicologist]

VERY fascinating piece of hers. There might be quite a lot with reverb, transposition (pitch shift) with feedback, ringmodulation, and filtering in the effects line. But it is true mastership to use those effects to create new vast spaces around the solo instrument.

[@josepharts2876]

When your teacher says "play how you feel"

[@alanhlozek831]

People are thinking of this in terms of good and bad... that is irrelevant... it is on a whole different spectrum... if you lose yourself in it, and are willing to learn a different language, so to speak, you will find satisfaction...

[@tottot283]

Awesome!

[@izabellabaldoino]

so beautiful!

[@fotgjengeren]

Great performance!

[@hendrikboehnke6752]

If you don´t like this and don´t understand this, stop the video please and listen to whatever you want but don´t degrade the musician, the composer and the music.

[@charlottecodd385]

No ❤️

[@charlottecodd385]

It degrades itself

[@hendrikboehnke6752]

@@charlottecodd385 It would be interesting to know what kind of music you like!

[@charlottecodd385]

Hendrik Boehnke good music

[@zgart]

@@charlottecodd385 this is good music imo.

[@CelloFX]

Imke is really rocking!

[@iuliangogu6217]

wonderful music and excellent interpretation! Bravo !!!!

[@joseluisgerardocortes1570]

Soberbio extraordinario maravilloso grandioso

[@patrickpeltier1543]

superbe.

[@Daniel_Fakhrnia-The_Pianist]

yup, this is not what you'd think it would be now, did you

[@rogerholt1116]

Reminds me of "Forbidden Planet" quite a bit, or wind blowing through empty metal pipes. Good vibrations!

[@udomatthiasdrums5322]

love it!!

[@J.Livermore]

Hats off Madame!

[@AnthonyLeighDunstan]

I'm curious to know which of the 25 students who thumbed down this video actually passed their exam. Did they're distaste for this piece come back to bite them in the ass? :-)

[@stevenskinner998]

cosimohankypants 😂😂😂 well actually they could have done psycho or berlioz in the exam.

[@louisodell1698]

nah g all good its just a bit shit

[@skolbob1667]

Their*

[@davidwright8432]

Very, very intriguing. I need to listen several more times to get a better sense of what's going on. Is the electronic component - accompaniment? - improvised against a fixed cello score, or set up beforehand? Kaija Saaiaho is new to me. I'm glad to have made her acquaintance! Also Gary Berger's.

[@adm_ezri]

the electronic component is harmoniser and resonance if my memory is correct. All components are written in the score. The piece is (or was when I studied) an A level music set-work to be studied and analysed, so there's no doubt an abundance of info out there online if you look with that in mind

[@mhv1279]

Heureux qu'il y ait quelques défenseurs parce que le déchaînement des incultes fait pleurer... Cette pièce est magnifique. On a le droit de dire qu'on ne la comprend pas, on a le droit de dire que la musique spectrale nous est inconnue, on a le droit de ne pas aimer. Mais les termes employés dans les commentaires qui attaquent cette compositrice ne sont que le reflet d'un sexisme crasse.

[@gibbehh4225]

As a song to listen to, it probably isn't something you go home on a friday night and rave to or listen to in the car but as a performance and in horror films/ games this is a truly unique and outstanding piece, but i'd rather listen to twenty one pilots xD

[@georgehillier7960]

lit

[@wyrmyfuture]

Why this piece makes so much sense for me? I'm reading the very violent but convincing double stories of a certain Daniel, in LXX. The storm in both is a storm.

[@vladimiryablokov3829]

Wow!!!

[@machida5114]

sodelicious...................

[@cyconscidious]

easier to study to than lo-fi... at least when you're taking a level music!

[@oliverfloyd9417]

Fucking hell this is so relaxing im so relaxed rn

[@adrianacousmatic]

Compare Alexis Descharmes (Saariaho supposedly at the electronics). Completely different. I've got the score and the MSP patch - the pitch shifting is minimal and as for feedback into the harmonizer. This version has had a lot of 'tinkering'. Begs the question 'how far can you go?'

[@kurtis.scotland]

Sounds like deepnest in hollow knight

[@robertoquintero6338]

form number 1 of wating a violoncello xdxd

[@monadnoise]

Is someone mixing this as she plays?

[@FeOfTheElement]

yes saariaho specificied in the score how the harmoniser and reverb are to be mixed live

[@TheRealTungo]

Who wrote there essay on this today?

[@gibbehh4225]

i did batman

[@TheRealTungo]

i was going to batman but the score was so confusing to read, i think there was a misprint in the paper

[@roshparmar8285]

innovative

[@Arthur94]

Bra-vo

[@alanhlozek831]

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"... if only we remembered that... but people feel that their beliefs are the most correct and that they absolutely understand everything they hear with the upmost intelligence... sorry, but not everyone wants to hear the complaining...

[@arashmooshekaf6283]

شنیدن این موسیقی مثل یک شکنجه ، اما شور انگیز و بیدار کننده است ! ترسناک و اسرارآمیز است ، پس شجاعت و میل به جستجو را بیدار میکند ! در کل تاثیر گذار بود ، مخصوصن که همه این صداها و نواها را یک نفر از یک ساز بیرون کشید !

[@alanhlozek831]

All in all, this music is not supposed to sound pleasant... none of it makes sense and that is the beauty of it...

[@davidkarapetian6061]

Hello Langley grammar :)

[@carlosortiz9297]

Parece la Yoko Ono del violoncello.

[@cocomon8443]

Wait a second. This was used as a form of torture in Vietnam. Arrest this woman

[@franzgubler9897]

COCOMON please explain your Statement. I don‘t understand.

[@zgart]

@@tomjenner6818 wdym this piece is amazing

[@phosphor3617]

May sound stupid and pretentious, but I really do see petals.

[@andantemusic02]

The piece was derived from her music from the Nymphéa (water lilies) quartet, thus the piece is titled petals. A petal is derived from a water lily. :)

[@Daniel_Fakhrnia-The_Pianist]

The only place I'd hear this, would in an alien horror movie game or film by itself, nothing else

[@tomduggan8044]

This piece must have been as difficult to write and play as it was to listen to.

[@josephmarletta8048]

Disgusting

[@FunkadelicPeach]

This is a great example of "Just because you're on a stage it doesn't magically make you any good".

[@newyoutube4326]

Dear god what a load of crap, all you protentious people who call this ingenious would be very impressed by my 3 year old neighbor banging any random key on the piano as there's just as much skill involved in creating that 'art'

[@scruffysean3640]

Keep an open mind. Educate yourself. Don't make blanket generalizations without knowing what really goes into a work of art. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2OTpoyOidaoodU. (P.S. *pretentious)

[@newyoutube4326]

Seán Roy Mac Aodha when you get to this level though you've got to apply some common sense

new youtube This is spectralism and live electronic music, you should search these two terms on internet, maybe you'll be less narrow-minded. Just learn, learn before saying total non-sense like one of these intolerant teenager, thank you.

[@newyoutube4326]

Ōkami Amaterasu it's god awful crap with no meaning and purpose - don't try and defend this shit. There's a reason the common man hates music like this

No, it's a music based on harmonics and spectral composition of the sound. It's way richer and complex than 90% of commercial music nowadays. There is a reason why the "common man" hates music like this, it is called culture, indeed music is only a cultural thing, a human who is conditionned by only the listening of atonal music will consider Mozart's works as a dissonant and awful music, it's just a matter of culture and conditioning (and there's scientific studies about this, you can search by yourself). If the "common man" reaction toward atonal music is so non-responsive perhaps agressive, it's just because you have been conditionned by tonal music, you are immersed in a world of tonal music since the beginning of your life.

[@FunkadelicPeach]

Objectively, this "music" is pretty bad. Horribly mixed and absolutely no form. Timbre is abysmal as well. It's got a neat "horror" affect to it, but I definitely would shy away from calling this "music" or a "song". It's just a horror movie sound board played live. Nothing special.

[@cgcomposer_]

Then why am I being made to study this for my A-levels?

[@bro-poirot1162]

It's a soundscape.

[@sandels2000]

You're just not smart and/or artsy to understand it or something. I am a fan of Saariaho's music. IMO it is pain to listen to but it is a greater pain to others. Hopefully she haunts you in your dreams and also in real life.

[@FunkadelicPeach]

@@sandels2000 I forgot about this comment. I normally would delete something like this, because I shouldn’t be so harsh and blunt, but I think your reply makes a lot of sense. This music wasn’t made to be “liked”. So it’s ok that I don’t “like” it. Lmao.

[@BarnardoP]

Of course it has form, just not the type of form you demand, appreciate or perhaps allow!