RÄISÄNEN
Tomi
Gatekeepers
(2003/2010)
(a) Sheng, Accordion (2003)
(b) Clarinet in Bb, Accordion (2010)
(c) Recorder, Accordion (2010)
Duration 8 min.
First performance (a) on October 4, 2003, in Royaumont, France, by Wu Wei, sheng, and Pascal Contet, accordion.
First performance (b) on September 2, 2010, in Helsinki, Finland, by Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson, clarinet, and Andrea Carola Kiefer, accordion.
First performance (c) on February 15, 2011, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, by Eva Gemeinhardt, recorder, and Vincent van Amsterdam, accordion.
I participated in the Royaumont Voix Nouvelles composition course in 2003. For this event, the task was to write new experimental music theatre pieces. I imagined the two players in the medieval Royaumont Abbey acting as gatekeepers, examining and blocking musical material and textures. Soon it became clear that the music theatre theme was not so popular amongst the participants; I also scrapped the idea and wrote a purely instrumental work. However, the title stuck. TR, 2022