Thoughts on A Clear View of Heaven 2

The sound-project A Clear View of Heaven brings together musicians with both modern and Baroque instruments; it is centred upon Etienne Abelin, the video-artist Bill Morrison, the Baroque singer Marisa Martins and the pop singer Ane Brun as well as an actor - with the purpose of posing questions about our origins. The sound project is a conference which, taking the Sistine Chapel as its example, reflects upon the restoration process and questions the value of our recollections.

Early and modern music subtly cross each other`s paths on a time-line from the past into the  present and then back again; texts turn away from restorative contemplation to visionary blueprints; image decays – old or new or even that of the future. References to time mix together and the value of our memory is put to the test.

Is it possible to learn something about ourselves through the process of restoration, when something is laid bare, improved, made-up, brightened up - or does our own picture of our past become even more hazy as a result?

Decay and renewal, reproduction: like an old and faded photograph of one`s parents, through which we re-discover our entire childhood  in a moment. Should we allow decay simply to happen, or should we work against it? Or is there a third path, a renewal and reworking into a  Palimpsest:  of a previous form, from which the surface layer is scraped away and a new one written over it  - but in a way that leaves the original still recognisable in outline?

How does decay appear in a digital epoch? Can there still be a concept of gradual weathering, or is it not instead more a case of oscillation between total presence and black hole, the digital crash?

Every musical performance is a renewal. Where traditions are missing, as to some extent in Early music, questions about restoration and updating play a particularly urgent part. Is it enough to play and sing Baroque music according to historically informed musical practice? Or is the spirit of this music perhaps better conveyed using modern equipment, electrically amplified instruments and pop song? And what happens when Early music with electronic support turns not into renewal but instead into a form of surrender to further decay?

It is with these and other questions and possible answers that the sound project is concerned.

To lead us through the evening is Baroque music by Nicola Matteis, Sigismondo D’India, Claudio Monteverdi and Henry Purcell, with historical instruments and restored for Baroque voice, transformed for electrically amplifed instruments and pop voice, and distressed through electronic means.

 

There are a number of sub-sections in groups:

- Baroque instrumental music (by Nicola Matteis)

- Baroque song, a capella and with instruments (by Claudio Monteverdi and Sigismondo D’India)

- popbaroque song with modern electronics and instruments (by Henry Purcell)

- transbaroque instrumental music (by Nicola Matteis/ arrangements: Etienne Abelin, André Buser, Maurizio Grandinetti)

- electronically distressed Baroque music

- texts on the restoration work in the Sistine Chapel

- texts on the value of restoration in the context of ourself as observer

- video-image material in the Sistine Chapel, distressed

- musicians with choral texts

- elements mixed together at different time levels  

 

Stage:

1.    Empty, open room, into which film is projected
2.    Within this space, three 3-metre long music-stand constructions, which are to be rearranged in the course of the evening according to the scenic context
3.    Following the exposition of film, music and text, scaffolding with a screen in front of it is pushed into the room and dividedes it in two; a cloth hung in front of the scaffolding reproduces the images in reduced size. The room is thus in different layers. Musicians play upon and behind the structure, whilst others remain in front.