[squeezeBox]² (2010) – Edward Caine – Part 1 of Huddersfield Festival 2010 Features
This is the first of several features on composers whose work has been a part of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival this year. Edward Caine’s piece, Madrigale II: Qu’est devenu ce bel oeil was performed by Nieuw Ensemble on Monday 22nd November at St Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield (for details about the rest of the programme, click here). Although we don’t have a recording of this piece in performance, we do have one of Edward’s other pieces, [squeezeBox]². Enjoy…
©Copyright 2010 Edward Caine
See below for Edward’s programme note for this piece:
[squeezeBox]² for two Accordions by Edward Caine
Premiere performance by TOEAC Accordion Duo, Cheltenham Festival 14/7/10
This piece was commissioned by Sound and Music and Cheltenham Festival. While writing it I was given a trip to Copenhagen, where the performers are studying at the DKDN (Danish conservatoire of music). Apologies for the poor quality of the video.
Programme Note:
It’s very unusual that you find yourself writing, not for one, but two accordions. It’s such and interesting and versatile instrument and having two of them provides some very interesting rhythmic and theatrical possibilities. As most composers are, I was interested in the “air button” sound – purely the sound of the bellows with no notes (often very expressive and interesting). I was also interested in the bellows as a concept in parallel to breathing. In the first few bars we start with one accordion moving inwards playing a tone and the other moving outwards playing “air”. In my head I imagined a tangible link between the accordions so that when one changes direction and material, so does the other – the affect should be that they are in some way linked, although that reaction to the changes is delayed. I think of the parallel notion of breathing – each air sound is like a breath of air before the bellows change direction again.
Other ideas I explored in the piece are the beating produced by having a “tone gliss” in one hand and keeping the note steady in the other – a beautifully clear rhythmic idea which I use in canon in the piece, and logical extensions of the “bellow shake” and “vibrato” techniques. The title [squeezeBox]2 refers to a british colloquialism for accordion that evokes to me both the bellow motion at the heart of the pieces structure and also the sweet but troubled nature of the material, something I associate with the gentle evocations of a homeless person on the side of the street playing an old broken accordion.
If you would like to see/hear more of Edward’s work and to find out about news/upcoming performances, please visit www.edwardcaine.com
You can also find out more about Edward on The Medium of at: Caine, Edward – Info
Finally, you can follow Edward through the following social networks:
Edward Caine on facebook
Edward Caine on twitter
Edward Caine on YouTube
Edward Caine on Sound Cloud
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