Unsuk Chin - Mannequin (2014/2015)
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- 00:00 1. MUSIC BOX - FEVER DREAM. An eerie music box (celesta) plays above subtle percussion machinations. Piercing string and flute harmonics sneak in
1:25 The music becomes panicked and frantic. (The orchestration techniques here are so astounding and varied, I can't describe them all) (2:09)(3:06)(3:49) (4:37)(5:05)
5:54 The music box creeps back in and fades away over a simultaneously warm and distressing string soundscape
07:01 2. SANDMAN AND CHILD. A gentle, eerily inviting pulse, slowly colored in/corrupted by the orchestra
8:31 A sudden violent turn of brass stings and frantic string runs (9:03) The gentle pulse returns but stressed by seemingly infinitely climbing string glissandos (10:10)
10:28 Climaxes in a wild flurry from all the orchestra (10:56) before the climbing string glisses slowly burn away the movement, despite desperate wind interjections
12:43 3. DANCE OF THE CLOCKWORK GIRL. A stilted dance hockets throughout the orchestra, gradually winding up (14:15)
15:45 Strident strings, brass stings, and woodwind flurries power the climax (16:14) before dissolving into unsynchronized pizz and harmonics
17:56 4. THE STOLEN EYES. The basses dance an awkward dance below ethereal bowed percussion (19:04) Alarming muted trumpets and distressed woodwinds
20:05 A deep bass drive, stabbing violin tremelos, as if being chased (20:42) High, piercing glisses, like sirens
22:32 A climactic nervous breakdown as all the orchestra rapidly start falling (23:12) Deep rumblings basses and the contrabassoon, stinging violin harmonics and bowed percussion, and brass stings end the piece
Composer: Unsuk Chin (진은숙 Chin Unsuk) (July 14, 1961 -)
Orchestra: Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música conducted by Baldur Brönnimann (Original video: • "Mannequin" de Unsuk Chin )
Score available from Boosey and Hawkes: www.boosey.com/cr/music/Unsuk...
Mannequin tells a story, though neither in the form of a linear narrative nor in the manner of illustrative programme music: the line between dreams and reality is being crossed in a surreal manner, with the main themes of the scenario being problems of perception and of personal identity. It is freely based on the fantastical novella The Sandman, written by German writer, composer, music critic, lawyer, cabaret artist and draughtsman E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Mannequin consists of four movements. The first two movements, respectively titled Music Box - Fever Dream and Sandman and Child refer to Nathanael's childhood and how his nanny used to instil terror in him by a cautionary tale about the Sandman who steals misbehaving children's eyes and feeds them to his offspring who live in the crescent moon. Nathanael associates the Sandman's figure with a half-mythical and sinister person named Coppelius, who seems in some way connected with the decline of Nathanael's family and who continues to haunt the adult Nathanael's life in the guise of a number of grotesque 'doppelgangers'. The third movement, Dance of the Clockwork Girl, refers to Olimpia, a female life-size automaton, with whom Nathanael falls in love, without realizing its true nature until it is being destroyed during a fight between its inventor Spalanzani and Coppola, a dubious seller of optical aids (both apparently being doubles of Sandman/Coppelius). The title of the last movement, The Stolen Eyes, refers to the ubiquitous 'eye leitmotif': throughout Hoffmann's tale, Sandman and his 'doppelgangers' (Spalanzani, Coppelius and Coppola) are stealing, inventing or selling eyes - a motive that, similarly to the title of Chin's work (Mannequin), might of course also be understood allegorically.
-Maris Gothóni
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Someone could so perfectly make an animated short film to fit this music. Such descriptive atmospheres and storytelling!
I usually put a lot of time between videos of the same composer, but I'm posting this as a "celebration" of hearing Chin's Double Concerto today, another masterpiece of orchestration (like basically all her pieces)! (A score video for that is here czcams.com/video/2ewjXmd9qGQ/video.html)
That second movement has secured Unsuk Chin as one of the greatest orchestrators of all time.
Finally someone...
Oh this has to be a new favorite of hers for me! Wonderful piece which really well encapsulates all her strengths in orchestral writing.
Her orchestration is so elegant.
A lot of marvelous orchestration techniques and textures here. Thanks for uploading!
Exciting, engrossing piece of meaningful moodiness and intensity. Very pleased you uploaded this! 😊🎵
Thanks for uploading!
A very talentfull musician. So atmospheric piece of music.
Stunningly imaginative music!
Oh that contra solo at the end was fkin lovely
sodelicious.............................
TY
This is my interpretation of this piece, but only after one listen so it’s subject to change over time:
The first movement begins with the soft sound of the music box, which is telling us a story. We start out hearing little more than the music box in front of us, but soon we start seeing the whole world within the music. We see splendid and terrifying machinery and magic, we see man-made devices more powerful than any man, and we see a terrifying fate of the protagonist of our story to come. Then, the song of the music box ends, and the vision ends with the last few notes of its melody. To me, this first movement can be viewed as the experience of watching someone get transported into a story or piece of art, and thus we are brought into that art with them.
The second movement begins in the warm safety of Nathaniel’s bedroom. He has heard the stories of the sandman, who sprinkles sand in the eyes of kids who refuse to sleep so that they fall out and he can take them to his children on the moon, and when he sees what he believes to be the sandman in his house, he decides to follow. This is Coppelius, a man who works with his father, and Nathaniel decides to follow him into a secret room where Coppelius and his father are performing unholy experiments with alchemy and machinery. This is where Nathaniel gets traumatized: he sees the already fantastical and horrifying activities his father is performing, and his young mind twists them into something so much greater and darker. He sees Coppelius as the sandman, threatening to steal his eyes to use in the twisted machinery they’re creating, only to be stopped by the father. But then something goes terribly wrong. Something blows up, and Nathaniel watches his father die in the explosion and Coppelius escapes. By now, his mind is almost completely unable to distinguish reality from the horrifying visions in his mind.
The third movement starts up much later, when Nathaniel is much healthier and mostly recovered, in his early 20’s. An extremely humanoid mechanical doll that Nathaniel believes to be human is dancing, with mechanical movements like the shifting of its gears and the squeaking of its axles. I don’t hear much representation of this within the music, but within the context of the fairy tale, Nathaniel likes this doll because it is willing to believe his stories and listen to him while his friends won’t. At this time, nobody knows the doll isn’t human, but most people think something is weird with it except for Nathaniel.
The fourth movement is the climax of the story. It is the perfect blend of the mechanical clockwork and the clouded fantasy of Nathaniel’s trauma that comes to haunt him. Horns blow, there is a crowd of people forming as the clockwork girl begins to fall apart in front of him when Coppola, a doppelganger of Coppelius takes the eyes of the doll back. Nathaniel’s last bit of reality shatters, and he is left stuttering and broken in a fantasy world, eventually hurling himself off of a balcony with a loud thud.
Oh YES!!!
The youtube channel Tale Foundry has a really good telling of the story of the Sandman that this piece is based on. The video’s name is “the sandman is darker than you think” or something like that. I highly recommend listeners of this piece check it out!
❤
Hi There Cmaj, I am a huge fan of your Channel. I love the Perfect Fool by Gustav Holst. I was wondering could I use that recording? I am working a project regarding my Lego. I wanted to get Permission from you.
based
based Unsuk
And so what? Continuing in the vein of Xenakis and variously related boring 20th C "sound events-and gestures is music" clan?
Can we not escape the continous-held notes Droning on anymore? How many measures *don't have* at least one !? 😮
Bored after 10 measures. Pretty sounds, the notes mean nothing.
no
テクニックは素晴らしいすが、又、このパターンか、と。現代音楽も全般的にパンチが無くなった気がします。そのうちゲームミュージックか何かの一枠になったりして。暴言多謝
All of this "modern" music is structured the same way. They start with pianissimos and harmonies that sound a bit nice and then, they unload the dog s...t. The disgusting clusters of sound that make no sense whatsoever. The orchestration makes up for it but not by much.
No generalisation at all there!
maybe it isn't for you then......
I think it’s cool
That's sort of like criticizing classical era symphonies for all starting with sonata form. You have to actually *listen* to the music. If you don't like the sound, then spend your time listening to anything else! Nobody is forcing you to listen to this! I find it quite interesting personally and it seems like many others do to.
All of these "classic" pieces of literature are structured the same way. They start with small expositions that are fairly tame and then, they unload the dog s...t. The disgusting rising action and climax. The storytelling and characters and ideas make up for it but not by much.