No. 24
Sar/on rails
By : morit4ryo
Entrant’s location : 日本
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Description
Sar/on railsはインドネシアの民族音楽「ガムラン」の根底に存在する精神「ラサ」に着想を得た音楽作品である。 ガムランは、音響や独特な音階から得られる異国情緒に目が向きがちだが、本作品ではガムランの楽器に共通する奏法に着目した。 ガムランを演奏する際の「音板を叩くと同時に一つ前に叩いた音を止める」という、動作を反復することから生まれる独特のフロー体験を一種のラサであると捉え、このラサを最小限の動作・音楽
What did you create?
"Sar/on rails" is algorithmic-based music that inspired by "Rasa," a spirit underlying Gamelan. Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music in Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. Its origin is "gamel" (in Indonesian, "tapping"). Since Debussy touched the gamelan at the 1889 Paris Exposition, Gamelan has mainly been focused on its fantastic sounds and relaxing effects. "Sar/on rails" using 28 Saron (a kind of Gamelan instrument) bars, 28 bars for mute and a torus-type stand. It played by 2 players and 1 sorter. The torus-type stand is a device for obtaining a “Rasa” from a minimum action. The players simply move around the stand while repeating the specified action, and the sorter should sort bars. By sorting, music is going forward and the atmosphere will appear. The title was named because the saron's bar on the stand looks like sleepers on rails.
Why did you make it?
In this work, I focused on the basic technique - 1. Hold the mallet with your dominant hand. 2. hit the bar, 3. and at the same time mute the previous bar with your other hand to avoid mixing the sound. - in Gamelan, not to the harmony. Although the sound-effect obtained from this playing technique has been focused on so far, I discovered that the unique flow experience obtained from the physical movement itself of continuing this technique is also closely related to the gamelan spirit "Rasa" did. However, for those who are new to gamelan, it's not easy to get into the “Rasa” because even just try to “hit and mute” is difficult when playing traditional Gamelan music. "If we can create an environment that can repeat “minimum” motion to “infinite”, isn't it possible to cross a gamelan border with getting "Rasa"?" -That's why I started to make this work.
How did you make it?
First of all, I decided this work that enacts with 2 players and using 28 Saron bars from 4 Sarons. Then I sampled The Gamelan sound one by one and simulated the combination of the player's movements and its sound with Max (Cycling '74). As a result, I add the sorter as an element to give musical progression to the work and decided that the bars were sorted from random order to pitch order by the sorter. On the other hand, I made my stand using Shopbot to play while moving and to exchange the bars without disturbing the player. Also, a bucket sort is used for the sorting of bars, and in the meantime, a sound-deadening bar made by cardboard and sponge is placed on the first stage in exchange for the bar stored on the second stage of the instrument stand. Finally, the instruction was produced and premiered in July 2019. After that, the instructions were revised 2 times.
Your entry’s specification
2 performers + 1 exchange (3 in total), instrument stand (wood) W 1120 * D1120 * H880 mm, 28 Saron barung sound boards, 28 sound deadening sound boards, 2 wooden mallets, 2 instructions