iris ter schiphorst

Brief notes on the work:

Playing techniques/'expression':
The miniatures oscillate between roughness and delicacy, both being colour on the one hand, but also leading to a completely different expression in our perception on the other. In other words, the playing techniques required in this piece make the colours and expressive registers more extreme, in a certain sense more 'expressive', if you like.

Playing techniques/orchestration:
However, the special playing techniques also add another layer in the vertical, so that one can basically even speak of orchestration. The individual note expands vertically - in different ways. Techniques such as flutter-tonguing, additional use of the voice, etc. lead to a 'multi-layered roughness' of certain passages in the lower and middle registers (as in the first miniature, for example), techniques such as different combinations of certain types of bisbigliando, simultaneous trills, sometimes with frullato, etc. (as in the 4th miniature) lead to a 'multi-layered roughness' of certain passages (as in the 1st miniature). (The playing techniques are therefore not an end in themselves, but a means of orchestration, i.e. they add a further layer to the 'lines and 'melodic arcs' of the piece. The more precisely these playing techniques are executed, the more complex the piece becomes, the more layers of sound can be heard in the vertical. This abandons the principle of monophony.

polyphony:
At the same time, the miniatures are full of fully composed polyphonic and contrapuntal passages (such as in the 5th miniature), in which several lines/voices are contrapuntally juxtaposed and sound simultaneously in the course. But there are also several lines/voices in the horizontal, which develop simultaneously in the course of the piece and relate to each other in different ways: interrupting, confirming, contradicting, complementing each other, etc. (as for example: very clearly in the first miniature
and the coda). These different lines must be very clearly organised so that they can be understood in their individual characteristics. The miniatures are therefore multidimensional, or polyphonic, both horizontally and vertically.

Physical music:
The player must make the miniatures completely their own, understand their complexity and create them in their own way. The player must also give the miniatures as a whole a creative arc, as they also relate to each other. The more the player makes the piece their own in this sense, the better. Because in the end, that's what the miniatures are all about: bringing your own, even unconventional interpretation of the play to the stage. A basic understanding of its complexity is the prerequisite for this.
It is therefore very concrete or physical music that is completely and utterly bound back to the performing (inwardly singing) body of the musician - and can only be experienced in this way. It is therefore ultimately performative music. (Iris ter Schiphorst, 11.09.2025)