IVAR FROUNBERG composer/works SHâTaLè (1991)

My intention was to establish a piece relying only on a number of structures and musical objects which was freed from the feelings of a single individual (in casu: the composer): an art of abstraction, based on being non-transparent, complex, multilayered as a conscious aesthetic choice.

I consider SHâTaLè as 'formalized music' in the sense that no single algorithm can describe the complexity of the interwoven structures. All structures has been calculated on the computer: the rigid hierarchical proportion scheme, the complex, octopus-like, harmonic labyrinths (relations between more than 2000 chords); -the virtual pitch basis (lower than 12 Hz) is analyzed from chord structures (extracted from a narrow set-basis) and gives raise to microtonal scales used primarily in the even-numbered sections. The software used is written in Max and HMSL running on a Macintosh-computer.

SHâTaLè has nine sections of which the odd numbered are characterized by the horizontal dimension ('melos') whereas the even numbered -as a contrast- primarily can be perceived as a vertical dimension ('harmony'). The ensemble is placed quasi-symmetrical on the stage in order to obtain an optimal radiation of sound. Much more can be said, but the attentive aural experience counts more...

Ivar Frounberg, 1992