"What's in my home" is the first piece OUTPOST has written with the composition pupils at Bodø High School!
I sent a very short text to the composition teacher, Karstein Djupdal. The text was:
"Finn to mindre gjenstander av metall hjemme hos deg selv. Lag en rytme som går over to
4/4-takter. Tempo er 75 på fjerdedelen. Ta opp disse to taktene. Når du tar opp, tell høyt en
hel takt i det riktige tempoet før du spiller de to rytmene."
The pupils had to record them selves playing a rhythm they make them selves on two metal objects they find in their home. Then they sent it to me. I listened to the recordings and edited it follow a certain pattern. I wanted to make a piece that could both be performed live as well as a recorded piece.
They new reality after the covid-19 epidemic is that we just don't know if we can actually meet to create and play. The pieces title "What's in my home" is also a comment on the current situation. Everything is not available to us any more so we have to get creative with what we got. It's also commenting on what it's like to live in the outskirts. Bodø has through my whole childhood had at least one music store, but the selection has been very little, and very pop and rock focused. I had to go to Oslo to find a music store with something I could use.
Here's the finished piece:
https://birgitdjupedal.wixsite.com/outpost/pieces
When I was satisfied with how the piece sounded, I wrote the sheet music which you can find below. It's both in English and Norwegian.
This is a new way of composing for me. Usually I compose the piece first and then it's rehearsed and performed. Here it was a process together with the other composers, the pupils. The piece is also inviting the performers or players to create a new rhythm every time, resulting in a new piece every time it's performer. One can then question me role as a composer. I am really a composer? I only organized it. I didn't actually composer one note in the whole piece.