20

TULITIKKUA BY ALEJANDRO OLARTE Kontula Electronica 2018

For anything between 10 to 20 synthesizers with pitch, timbre and volume control.

The piece consists in the progressive modulation of pitch, amplitude, and timbre around the note D4 (midi note: 62, frequency: 293.66
Hz) and the natural instabilities of musical expression generated by group negotiations. The visual metaphor will be 20 matchsticks
burning 20 times.

The piece starts with a clear signed agreed beforehand and given by any member of the band. All musicians should start at the same
time and play the note with a moderate volume and any chosen timbre for a time equal or less than 16 seconds after all the musicians
have reached the end of the note a common short silence of about 4 seconds should be held.
Once the silence period is gone, an iteration of 19 more cycles can start again this time triggered by the playing of any of the musicians
(as soon as a new sound start, everybody should join).
In each new cycle, every musician should freely and slowly introduce continuous modulations of one, two or all of the parameters
proposed (pitch, amplitude, timbre). The modulations can be controlled either manually (pitch bends, filter knobs, etc) or
programmatically with LFOs, Envelopes, Oscillators, etc..). To respect the continuous aspect of the modulation the use of sequencers (if
any) should be done in a way to avoid perceptible step changes.
Each cycle finishes in a brief silence after all the band converges again into the note D4 and the duration of each cycle should not be
more than 20 seconds.
For example, if in a cycle a musician decides to play a fast glissando up and down around the note, and the gesture last only 2 seconds,
the final note (D4) should be held until everybody plays it and then banish it to a common silence.
Modulations should get very wild and the sound should be colourful and dynamically powerful but always resting and starting from D4
with breathing silences in between