Atropine at International Ensemble Modern Academy
In January 2024, Repečkaitė’s composition Atropine for brass trio and electronics was performed by International Ensemble Modern Academy students Jinhyoung Kim (trumpet), Robyn Blair (horn), Noah Perkins (trombone) & Moritz Fischer (electronics) Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Atropine was premiered by Collegium Novum Zürich during Electrocution festival, Brest, France in 2022.
Atropine performers: Robyn Blair (horn), Moritz Fischer (electronics), Noah Perkins (trombone) and Jinhyoung Kim (trumpet).
IEMA-Ensemble concert program
Justina Repečkaitė: Atropine for brass trio and electronics (2022)
Ying Wang: Coffee and Tea (2012)
Tristan Murail: Treize couleurs du soleil couchant (1978)
Philip Venables: Illusions (2015, rev. 2017)
Simon Steen-Andersen: rerendered for pianist and two assistants (optional participating conductor, optional live video) (2003, rev. 2004)
Alexander Reiff: Neues Werk (2024) (World Premiere)
Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt (HfMDK), Kleiner Saal, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
IEMA - Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie
IEMA trains artists, broadens aesthetic horizons and provides professional orientation within the New Music field.
Professionalization in the New Music field: the one-year Master’s degree course „International Ensemble Modern Academy – Contemporary Music Performance“ is designed for graduates in instrumental studies, conducting, composition and sound direction. The goal of the Master’s degree programme is to teach contemporary performing techniques and the notation and interpretation of contemporary music, as well as to develop an understanding for aesthetic concepts immanent to the works, gaining comprehensive knowledge of the musical repertoire of the 20th and 21st century. The course is offered in cooperation with the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (HfMDK) and concludes with the degree „Master of Music (M. Mus.)”.
Atropine (2022) for trumpet, horn, trombone & electronics. 9’30”
Program Note
Atropine occurs naturally in a number of hallucinogenic plants of the nightshade family, including Datura, Hyoscyamus & Atropa belladonna from which it was first isolated in XIX century. Today atropine is used on eyes, heart, to increase secretion and treat poisonings but preparations from plants in the nightshade family for use in witchcraft are much older. In the composition Atropine a text from the manuscript Flora Parisiensis (Pierre Bulliard, 1777) is read for the electronics part. Whispering voice excites the resonators whose spectrum comes from analyzed harmonies that result from intervals of simultaneous singing and playing the trombone. Both speaking and singing voice is notated in the score, which examines illusions of subjective tones. Omnipresent are techniques of unstable sounds, like split-tones or pedal-tones. Drones accompany the trio that play with compressor amplifying quiet noisy sounds and limiting the loud ones. Each instrument symbolically represents a named flower whose title is given for different parts. Atropine is a continuation of the composer’s reflection on altered state of consciousness started with the miniature Datura (2021) for solo trombone.
The Max/Msp patch controls compression, spatialization and plays sounds triggered by the pedal.
