Ballet Mécanique
© N. Lackner
Ensemble Mécanique

06/10/2019 - 18:00
Kunsthaus Graz
George Antheil, Winfried Ritsch, Helmut Kaplan

Concerts for robotic ensemble with 5 pianos, 2 xylophones, 1 marimba, 4 drums, 1 TamTam, 3 propellers, 7 bells and 3 sirens. George Antheil composed his "Ballet Mécanique" in the 20's, when machines were already driving the industrial revolution. The "Graz version" of the work will be performed for the first time in this concert in the version of 1925 with all the planned instruments at the original tempo of 153. Winfried Ritsch's "canon for machine orchestra" is an algorithmic composition that interweaves dynamic progressions of sound surfaces of the "automata" as a repeatable canon. In the third piece, the "Percussion Piece", rhythm patterns by Helmut Kaplan are automated and playfully combined to form a new composition.

 

In cooperation with Kunsthaus Graz, Atelier Algorythmics and Klavierhaus Fiedler. "Ballet Mechanique" is shown in the Kunsthaus exhibition "Connected. Peter Kogler with ..." in the shortened synchronized version with the film. (Kunsthaus Graz, Peter Kogler and Kathrin Bucher.)