TONSPUR IN BERLIN
Sound works at Schloßplatz in Berlin
A project by Georg Weckwerth and Peter Szely
A programme of sound works by international artists
at the “Übergangsnutzung
Schlossareal Berlin”.
These artists' multi-channelled compositions go well
beyond the standard stereophonic experience, creating
captivating acoustic
architectures and sound spaces.
TONSPUR 33
Peter Ablinger [A]
PALASTMUSIK für Infra- und Ultraschall, 2010*
8-channel composition
Length 4 min
Technical consultant: Winfried Ritsch
Speaker design: Udo Wohlgemuth
Studio technician: Thomas Musil
Mixing: IEM Graz
*Supported by Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin
01.02.10–29.05.10
Schloßplatz Berlin/Mitte
Bench line between Berlin Cathedral and Academy of
Music Hanns Eisler [nearby the Humboldt-Box]
Daily 8am to 10pm
Opening: Su 31.01.10, 11.30am
Opening words:
Georg Weckwerth [artistic director of TONSPUR]
Wilhelm Pfeistlinger [director of the Austrian Cultural Forum
Berlin] – read
Sebastian Kiefer [essayist and lecturer] – read
PALACE MUSIC FOR INFRASONIC AND ULTRASONIC SOUND An inaudible piece of music for a nonexistent palace, music for
the absent. Or, a piece of music for non-human perception, music
dedicated to hearing that totally ignores spoon-fed patterns of human
perception. Or, a piece of music for dogs, bats, elephants, whales
and the barely-born.
8 audio positions are arranged according to eight stages of life, in
order: roughly 10, 20, 30… rising to about 80 years old. The sounds
consists of a canon of rising scales on and above the auditory threshold,
i.e. into the ultrasonic field, and one of scales descending into the
infrasonic field, i.e. sinking to the depths of sound where the tone
dissolves into individual sound waves. We can't hear the latter, we can
only feel them: even this part of the music remains inaudible to us —
despite the winter weather — until we sit on the bench above one of
the speaker positions. The sensory organ for the music heard will no
longer be our ears, it'll be our buttocks.
In contrast, the higher auditory threshold varies considerably according
to age. Younger people will clearly hear the speaker positions for the
more aged. Although even the youngest of these will not be able to
hear everything, just the individual locations where the ascending
scale disappears, their own personal auditory threshold — where
everything stops.
Palastmusik is dedicated to Siegrid, my wife.
Peter Ablinger, January 2010
BIOGRAPHY
Peter Ablinger, born in Schwanenstadt, Austria in 1959,
lives and works in Berlin since 1982.
ablinger.mur.at
TONSPUR FOR A PUBLIC SPACE
Text follows... Georg Weckwerth, January 2010
