In this piece for orchestra spatialised around the concert hall,  I was concerned with the relationship between humans and space.  The space that is explored here is the Beethovensaal of the Liederhalle. The curved architecture may seem as inflexible as the Antarctic in 1911. The musicians are distributed throughout the hall.  They as well as the sound objects form themselves in the space  and are formed by the space. The sounds create a dramaturgy of  the opening of space and of movement of sounds in space. 

The inspiration for the piece is rooted in my analysis of William Forsythe’s choreography one flat think, reproduced and my  subsequent research about the Terra Nova expedition of Robert  Falcon Scott and his team in the Antarctic (1910–13), especially  the memoirs and filming made by Herbert G. Ponting of this  tragically failed expedition. 

In this piece I am conceptually inspired by this expedition  and the great white environment of the Antarctic regions. Signals (percussive morse code) and animalistic calls (transcriptions of underwater sounds from Weddell seals and the cries of  the Emperor penguins) are transmitted from the stage, and eventually answered by instruments moving throughout the hall and  in stations above and surrounding the audience.  

The dramaturgical structure is shaped by rivalling processes,  some with an exponential, unstoppable development, some  in a manner that allows for recuperation (what scientists call  a “healthy line,” when referring to the process of glacial melting).  In this manner, the signals and calls are not only affected by their  position in space: the entire masses, points and streams of sound  travelling through the hall and therefore our aural perception of  the space is affected by these different processes.  

Annesley Black

The work was commissioned by the Stuttgart State Orchestra and Podium Gegenwart im Deutschen Musikrat. Its world premiere was given in February 2024 by  the Stuttgart State Orchestra under the baton of Pablo González in the Beethovensaal of Stuttgart’s Liederhalle.