{"id":49939,"date":"2023-03-24T16:18:20","date_gmt":"2023-03-24T16:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shefnews.co.uk\/?p=49939"},"modified":"2023-03-24T16:18:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T16:18:20","slug":"behind-the-chaotic-production-of-music-for-the-arts-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shefnews.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/03\/24\/behind-the-chaotic-production-of-music-for-the-arts-tower\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the chaotic production of ‘Music for the Arts Tower’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Friday evening in Sheffield’s Arts Tower was a unique spectacle to behold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of Classical Weekend, Platform 4, a composer collective based in the Steel City, put on a performance piece in collaboration with sound artist Lorenzo Prati. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was entirely one-of-a-kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole piece was timed, travelling across different spaces within Sheffield\u2019s beloved modernist building, with performers on the paternoster – one of only two left in the UK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Noble, one of the group’s composers, reflected on how the night of logistical nightmares and original music came together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tom Owen’s Stairs Pairs piece performed between the Mezzanine and Lower Ground in the Arts Tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2018, the collective were asked by a few different organisations to put on a performance of \u2018In C\u2019 by Terry Riley inside the iconic skyscraper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of performing in the Arts Tower again was mentioned in conversation with Nick Potter, on the University of Sheffield\u2019s concerts team, and The Leadmill\u2019s Rose Wilcox, Classical Sheffield\u2019s programme coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With revisiting the space suddenly a possibility, they knew that it would be wonderful to play their own music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Noble said: “We wanted to create a Morten Felman kind of concert where it wasn\u2019t \u2018sit down, here\u2019s a piece, clap clap clap\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was stuff happening from all angles, and in some cases, more than one piece going on at once. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn’t really like a traditional concert, so we wanted to kind of embrace that, really, and the fact it was in this hulk of a \u201860s building.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tom James and Chris Noble performing Adoration of the Golden Calf at the Classical Sheffield festival in 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The group wanted to work with the space in the building, and decided to focus on the mezzanine and the paternoster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday night’s performance was split into two halves – the first half was all about the lifts, and the second moved to the wider spaces of the lower ground and ground floors, and the mezzanine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this first half, the paternoster was the stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musicians performed individually in the lift carts, yet remained part of a group piece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience were split across floors one to thirteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performers got on at the mezzanine, travelling up whilst they played, before getting off at 14 – just to get back onto the descending side and loop back around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Platform 4’s Jenny Jackson said that when the performers weren’t playing, they would pose and move past as a tableau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first half was made up of two “foreground pieces”, and two “background pieces”, as Mr Noble described it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Owen, another Platform 4 member, had his piece, Ascenseur pour l’\u00e9chafaud<\/em> meaning ‘lift to the scaffold’, in the foreground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Noble recounted Owen’s piece as \u201cabsolutely bonkers\u201d, involving people holding Bluetooth speakers whilst playing stuff from scores sellotaped to the walls of the lift cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tom Owen on the melodica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Volunteer Musicians dressed as birds, heading into the Paternoster<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chris Noble and volunteer musicians getting into the lift for his glockenspiel piece<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Noble’s piece, which followed next, was inspired by the paternoster itself – playing with sounds that would ping in the space, and named after an old sign displayed as you enter the lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Played on 12 glockenspiels with each musician in a different lift car, they couldn’t be conducted – and had to rely on their start time and a trust in each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Titled \u2018OVER-TRAVEL IS NOT DANGEROUS\u2026\u2019, the piece references the sign that read, “\u2018”over and under travel is not dangerous, but not recommended”, which Chris said he didn\u2019t think was very threatening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cAs soon as we had the opportunity to think about writing a piece for the lifts, the glockenspiel was the first instrument that came to mind that would ping off of the walls, ping off all the concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He \u201cknew that everyone was going to write something slightly crazy\u201d, so decided to write something a bit lighter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea is that the piece is made up of slightly threatening-sounding riffs, but because it\u2019s playing on 12 glockenspiels, it\u2019s never a total threat, so it relates back to that sign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussing the sound of his piece, Mr Noble said there were “some quite scrunchy jazz harmonies in there – whether that always carries on 12 glockenspiels is another case”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: “The theme of the piece was to write something that on another instrument would probably sound quite discordant at times, but when it\u2019s just pinging around, sometimes the notes sound like notes, and sometimes they sound like pings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You\u2019re never going to get the horrible scrunches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think the medium sort of reflected the mode that I wanted to portray. The sort of non-threatening sparkly kind of sound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lyn in her costume for Jenny’s Nightingales piece<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Lorenzo Prati, a sound artist and PhD student at the University of Sheffield who has been studying the acoustics of the Arts Tower, composed a loop that lasted the whole night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loop played in the background throughout, and had little bits from all of the other pieces that he had pre-recorded, and then new live recordings that were fed into the loop on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Noble said: \u201cHe was like a crazy scientist, feeding it all back into his set up on the mezzanine floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were speakers everywhere, all rigged up on the lower floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New parts were fed in at various different times and he triggered previous parts every so often, and the volume came up or down depending on the piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, with this playing behind Tom Owen and Chris Noble\u2019s pieces, Jenny Jackson\u2019s Nightingales <\/em>played every eight minutes and 37 seconds by vocalists and musicians on the piccolo who were all dressed as birds.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This repetitive timing reflected the \u201crhythms of the lift\u201d, matching the time it takes for the paternoster to do one complete circuit exactly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Noble described, \u201cif you\u2019ve not read the programme notes or had any kind of context, it\u2019s utterly bamboozling – just birds shrieking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey would make an absolute cacophony for about thirty seconds and then disappear into the night, or just pose on the lift.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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