Ballet: The Bell Tower

Idea, composition, conception

Christian Klinkenberg Electronics: Centre Henri Pousseur

Choreographic implementation and dance

Compagnie Irène K.

Musicians

Ensemble 88

The Bell Tower

is both a summary of long-standing disputes with interactive sound environments and on the other hand, an artistic exploration of historical monuments processed in the dimensions of meaning of our present body - spatial perception. The latter, in turn, gave the impulse for new technical solutions which are implemented by computer-aided motion analysis of the dancers, a resulting from this analysis the score for the musicians and the spatial, the events supporting by acoustic localization of speaker placement . Seven bells of the belfry of the Aachen Cathedral has been analyzed spectrally in seven intensities. This included both the microtonal frequencies and the amplitudes of the partials. Based on the material of this analysis, the 49 sound clouds were for traditional musical instruments such as violins, clarinets, flutes … orchestrated . Seven motion zones provide the inner circle of the stage. Every motion zone forms interactive virtual sound as well as a physical environment with corresponding digital motion computation by enhanced camera-motion-sensing. The basic elements of this concert performance are based on a clear arrangement of functions, space constellations and technical parameters. One can speak of a structured self test set obtained in the movements of the body impulses through the clouds of sound, the structure of these clouds of sound, however, influenced by the type of movement in this context. Thus, in a determined parameter range, the digital screen of the musicians is influenced in that process by the performance of the dancers. Thus, one can speak of a dynamic composition: Each performance is unique in the truest sense of the word.