Repertoire
BIT20 Ensemble has an extensive repertoire of contemporary works, many of which
have been commissioned and premiered by the ensemble. Below you will find a short
presentation of the repertoire divided into the categories Nordic/Norwegian, Special
Projects, International Commissions and International ‘Classics’. Find detailed
repertoire list on other link.
Nordic/Norwegian
BIT20 Ensemble has a large number of Nordic works on its repertoire list. The
ensemble has been awarded several prizes for its outstanding role in presenting
Norwegian music abroad. The overview includes works by Kaja Saarjaho (FI), Hans
Abrahamsen (DK), Rolf Wallin (NO), Ruben Sverre Gjertsen (NO), Henrik Hellstenius
(NO), Magnus Lindberg (FI), Jon Øivind Ness (NO), Arne Nordheim (NO), Cecilie
Ore (NO), Asbjørn Schaathun (NO), Karin Rehnqvist (SE), Bent Sørensen (DK), Lasse
Thoresen (NO) and many other composers. BIT20 Ensemble has collaborated with many
of these composers over a period of several years. See repertoire list on other
link.
For our twentieth anniversary in 2009 we commissioned a series of miniatures
from some of the Norwegian composers with whom we have worked throughout our history.
The result is a successful cross-section of the Norwegian music of today, providing
audiences with small samples of varying musical landscapes. The pieces were premiered
together as ‘movements’ of one composite work (25'). In the future they may be
performed separately or together.
Composition for the 20th Anniversary Celebrations of BIT20 Ensemble:
Olav Berg (born 1949): Soli 2'40''
Lasse Thoresen (born 1949): Kvaternitet 4'30''
Yngve Slettholm (born 1955): Nature vivante 2'
Rolf Wallin (born 1957): Round (born duo fl, pc) 2'
Rune Rebne (born 1961): Hii 2'
Knut Vaage (born 1961): Mikromani 2'
Asbjørn Schaathun (born 1961): Weaving 2'
Henrik Hellstenius (born 1963): Breathings 2'
Jon Øivind Ness (born 1967): Who’s Afraid of Barbara Woof 2'20''
Eivind Buene (born 1973): Miniatures 4'
Special Nordic Projects
We have commissioned some works which we label ‘special projects’. The Norwegian
composer Lasse Thoresen has composed a 60 minute long work in five movements for
folk singer and ensemble, Løp, lokk og linjer (Chases, Cattle Calls and Charts). In this work three spheres of sound come together:
contemporary music, folk music and animal sounds – primarily birdsong. It marks
the culmination to date of those works by Thoresen in which he attempts to combine
the immediacy of folk music with a systematic approach to sound colour and form
as found in the extensive repertoire of notated music. Thoresen is also oriented
towards French music; both the tradition of musique concrète with its focus on timbre and sound quality, and spectral music which, based
on acoustic analyses of single notes, has opened up a whole new type of harmony.
Rather than forming the original oral material into something more regular, symmetrical
and polished, Thoresen does the opposite: he emphasises uneven rhythms, untempered
intervals and grainy sound surfaces, and lets these become prominent elements
of his sound world. Two movements of Chases, Cattle Calls and Charts were premiered at the Klangspuren festival in Austria in 2003 and the entire
work was premiered at the Ultima festival in Norway later the same year. Since
then it has been performed in several countries. It has also been used successfully
in outreach programmes for school children. A recording of Løp, lokk og linjer is available on the Norwegian record label Aurora.
The Swedish composer Karin Rehnqvist’s work Där korpen vitnar (Where the Raven Blanches) (28’) has some similarities in its concept to Lasse Thoresen’s work. It is also
written for folk singer and ensemble, but expresses itself in a different way.
It has a dramatic nature and tells the story of the witch trials in Europe during
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The text is based on traditional Swedish
spells and incantations, an old Swedish hymn and texts by a contemporary Romani
author, Rosa Taikon. The composer has imagined what it was like to be a woman
in those days, what the world around her reflected, how close she was to nature,
how she believed in all kinds of creatures, in the omnipresence of the magical
and the mystical, the church (the clergy often being the driving forces of the
witch trials), the powerful and the humorous. The piece should preferably be semi-staged
with lighting and acting musicians, but also works musically in its own right.
BIT20 Ensemble, the Nordic Chamber Ensemble, Sweden and OrchestrUtopica, Portugal
commissioned it in 2007. BIT20 Ensemble has so far performed it at the 2009 Nordic
Music Days and is scheduled to perform it again in May 2010.
International Commissions
In addition to an extensive policy of commissioning in order to increase the
number of Norwegian works on the ensemble’s repertoire, we have commissioned works
from several international composers, with a particular focus on French and Japanese
composers.
The French composers that have been important to the ensemble are Philippe Hurel,
Martin Matalon, Philippe Leroux and most recently Philippe Manoury, whose commissioned
work for alto voice and ensemble based on texts by Friedrich Nietzsche (35') is
as yet unperformed. We are currently also commissioning a new work from Philippe
Hurel for solo cello and ensemble.
Japanese composers from whom we have commissioned works include Akira Nishimura,
Karen Tanaka and Dai Fujikura. Fujikura’s most recent commission is a Horn Concerto
(15'), which we premiered in December 2009 with the talented young horn player
Saar Berger as the soloist.
The German composer Iris Ter Schiphorst is in the process of writing a work for
us to be premiered in the autumn of 2011. The work has been commissioned in association
with Integra, a European project in which we are partners. The work will include live electronics
and an actor.
Contemporary ‘Classics’
The ensemble also performs ‘classics’ of the contemporary repertoire, on occasion
going as far back as Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern. One piece the ensemble
has performed to critical acclaim on several occasions is György Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto from 1969–70 (21'). The Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen has also reworked music
by Schönberg, Carl Nielsen and Per Nørgård especially for BIT20.
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