For the film Clearway (Corona) Elizabeth Jigalin has created music to accompany footage of Rox De Luca’s artworks and pieces for two solo musicians.
On composing music to accompany Rox De Luca’s artworks …
To accompany Rox De Luca’s stunning artworks, I have composed three prepared piano pieces – each of which are quite contrasting in character.
During a visit to Rox’s studio, I was particularly drawn to the colourful, intricate, playful and melancholic nature of her work – qualities that I am often exploring in my music. Additionally, Rox’s process of finding, sorting and assembling this material reminded me of my approach to preparing a piano (ie: placing objects into a piano in order to change the sound).
When preparing a piano, I will often explore a combination of found materials that I experiment with in terms of their placement within the piano – extending the palette of sounds I have to work with.
In ‘sculpting’ these three prepared piano pieces, I was excited to fill my piano with plastic materials Rox had given me from her own collection – adding a curious dimension/connection between the music and visuals.
On composing two monologues for two solo musicians …
As a transition between the footage of short stories read by actors and Rox De Luca’s artwork, I have composed two ‘monologues’ – one for flutist Jessica Scott and the other for cellist Freya Schack-Arnott.
In composing these two miniatures, I have been drawing upon textual features of the stories (overall structure, themes, titles and phrases) in synthesis with ideas that have been inspired by Rox’s works and the Articulate Project Space itself.
The musicians will be filmed playing their monologue alongside Rox’s work – as if a duet! I love composing miniatures especially for solo instruments as it gives me an opportunity to focus and delve into an idea whilst working in dialogue with the musician who will be bringing the music to life.
Similarly to the stories shared by ‘solo’ actors, there is of course something beautifully personal about music composed for solo musicians and I am looking forward to experiencing this parallel within the film.
@ Elizabeth Jigalin, 2020. Read more about Elizabeth Jigalin here.