Asbjørn Schaathun

Triplis+

For mezzo-soprano, percussion, electric organ, alto flute, coranglais, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, double-bass and piano. Triplis+ consists of seven songs based on computer-manipulated text fragments from Wilhelm Müller's 'Die schöne Müllerin'. The seven songs should be played without interruption: I) Warum nicht? II)Nicht so... III)Angst IV) Wohin? V) Heimat VI) Stille VII)Ruhig The score of TRIPLIS+ has a long history. The whole project began as a piece for piano and mezzo, DUALIS (1987), to which I added percussion instruments to the vocal and piano parts, which was deeply unsatisfying. (I also suggested certain ways of making different versions of the piece, a so-called 'open score', but this was even worse...) From the ruins of this piece I carved out a new DUALIS (1991), using the same material, but with no percussion instruments added and in the form of a traditional 'frozen' score. In 1993 I was asked to include a separate percussion part for a trio-version of my first undertakings of DUALIS. In close collaboration with the Cikada Trio I created a new version, TRIPLIS (1993) which then in turn was taken as a point of departure for an extended version of the piece called TRIPLIS+ (1996-99). In this 'version integrale', I - due to the requirements of the commission - added an ensemble of 8 instruments, sometimes elaborating material from the mezzo-line, sometimes contradicting or commenting upon it. The piano has a special role in both TRIPLIS+ and TRIPLIS; functioning as a kind of 'libro', the piano textures, which have the feel of an accompanying part, are played ad lib throughout the work. In this way the pianist can change the actual dramatical flow of the piece. The first performance of TRIPLIS+ took place in the Bjergsted Music Centre in Stavanger, Norway in April 1999, with the commissioner, Stavanger Contemporary Music Ensemble under direction of the composer.