ATB-CD04:
Nicolay Apollyon: Episeme and MNEMonics
Synne Skouen: "Une Soirèe d'ètè..."
Magnar Åm:"aching hard, aching soft"
Geir Inge Lotsberg, violin.

ÉPISÈME connects to the traditions of Byzantine and Venezian music. But even more, it connects to the melodic and rhythmic representation of neumes (gregorian chant): ictus and intensity, ictus and the tonique accent, ictus and the horisontal and vertical épisème (the dilatation and accent of rhythmic phrases), all which date back to the origin of music.
Notation (Paleography and Semiology) Paleography is the study of ancient handwriting in order to establish its interpretation, date and place of origin. The term refers mainly to the study of Greek and Latin handwriting. In an analogous manner, one can speak of musical paleography, defining its science of ancient systems of notation employed to express music in the visual domaine. In a large sense, its object is the reading of ancient manuscripts in view of a musical interpretation and restoration. In a more precise sense, musical paleography is today limited exclusively to the study of musical symbols, their various forms, their history and their graphic distribution. In short: Paleography is the study of neumatic signs and melodic signification, Semiology is the study which examines the reason (logos) for the diversity of the signs (semeion) in order to deduce the fundamental principles for an authentic and objective interpretation. Instead of drawing on modern aestetic concept of rhythms foreign to the Gregorian era, this interpretation must be guided by the facts that comparative work or the diverse signs reveal to us. Thus this is the only realistic basis for performance practices. J. Hourlier: Paleografia musicale in Enciclopedia cattolica italiana, IX, 580-585.
NICOLAY APOLLYON

“Une soirée d’été…”., subtitled “Meditation sur Marguerite D.”, was composed on commission for the Oslo Chamber Music Festival in 1991, when I was engaged as the festival’s official composer. The title comes from the very first line of an odd little book written by French author Marguerite Duras. The debut performance of the violin solo was planned for just such “a summer evening”, and I was, and continue to be, intrigued by Duras’s ability to create visual images. Some people say that listening to the radio inspires us to imagine the best pictures, but I think that reading Duras is even more inspiring! There is not much else to say about my little musical work.
It was written for violinist Arve Tellefsen – one could say that the music and the musician met each other half-way. Now, so many years later, I am pleased and amazed to hear how Geir Inge Lotsberg has managed to make this same music his own.
SYNNE SKOUEN

aching hard, aching soft (concerto for violin and infinitely responding space) Yes, living can be somewhat painful. You feel as though you have been flung into a room that is surrounded by forgetfulness: What was it I was supposed to be doing here? You are drawn into a vortex of thoughts, hopes, actions and consequences that move so quickly that you can’t manage to maintain a broad perspective. Naturally the consequences are not only painful; of course life is also beautiful and tender.
But the painful feeling of being shut out lasts and lasts.
But – shut out from what?
Then do I have a memory, after all, of another, more profound reality?
A vision of a sense of unity behind it all? Because if that did not exist, we would not have the feeling that we had lost it, would we?
When contemplating questions such as these, a type of life and a type of music spring up that are characterised by the tension between two elements: at one level, the feeling of being denied access to one’s real sources and goals, and at another, the feeling of being carefully tended and included by that same source. Loneliness wrestling with loving cohesion. But music and life naively gamble that loneliness is a temporary thing, while the inclusive power of love has always shimmered, and always will, at the bottom of everything.
MAGNAR ÅM

MNEMonics originated from working with the ISPW (IRCAM Signal Processing Workstation) in Paris. The hardware was produced by Ariel Corporation for the NEXT computer (The CUBE) running under the software MAX. This was a hardware/ software package developed for real-time synthesis and score following. Score following is the process of tracking live players as they play through a predetemined score. Real-time synthesis is the process of creating a “new instrument” as they play providing accompaniment to one ore more live players. Meanwhile, the ISPW went out of production but the work with MNEMONICS continued, porting most of the work to the MacIntosh platform still running under the software MAX/MSP.
Lexical meaning: Mnemonics is the art of memory; a system of precepts and rules intended to assist the memory; artificial memory, RAM, or Ramdom Access Memory: Temporary memory stored in the computer´s volatile buffer.
Furthermore: One of the original three Greek Muses, Mneme is the Muse of Memory. She is the sister of Aoide and Melete. In Greek mythology, the Muses are nine Greek goddesses of the arts and sciences. According to Hesiod's Theogony, they are the daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. The Muses inspired artists, musicians and poets. They were associated with the Roman Camenae.
NICOLAY APOLLYON