Panayiotis Kokoras (1974)

Paranormal (2003)

for three snares

  • General information
    • Composition date: 2003
    • Duration: 7 mn 30 s
    • Publisher: Inédit
Detailed formation
  • 3 snare drums

Premiere information

  • Date: 10 September 2004
    Location:

    Pays-Bas, Amsterdam, Fellix Meritis Hall, Semaine musicale Gaudeamus


    Performers:

    Claire Edwards, Fedor Teunisse, Marcel Andriessen.

Program note

Paranormal was composed during winter 2003. This is the first piece I completed after returning back to Greece from a long stay in England. It was quite a challenge for me to see how the new environment could affect my compositional output.

The first thought I had in my mind when I started to work on the piece was to avoid of making a piece based mostly on pointillistic rhythmical ideas. I tried to create a sort of a sound palette that I was going to use for the piece later. Having a snare drum in front of me I experimented a number of possible locations above and around the drum head using several different kinds of mallets, brushes, sticks even fingers. I made a classification of the sound database I created with respect to their morphological criteria such as mass, harmonic timbre, grain, dynamics, melodic profile, production context, based on my perceptual and/ or cognitive criteria.

Paranormal opens with the three snare drums to create a holophonic texture that carries with in it a variety of possibilities for further development and morphopoiesis in the course of the piece. The intrinsic properties of the holophonic texture become perceptible as they fused to single abstract sound entities with temporal focal points and variable peripheral shapes.

Listening to the piece one could hear from metallic harmonic shifting to crackly, granular textures and trembling, sweepy gestures and even more complex sound structures. Occasionally, there are moments that reminisce to sounds of rain or fire, air, and even machinery. All through amplification that makes possible to hear a whole world of sound possibilities easily masked from a "bang".

The percussionists’ virtuosity is expressed through delicate sound manipulations they control throughout the work. The performers create a variety of sounds by utilising different points, locations and ways to trigger in the instrument.

Panayiotis Kokoras