«Circularium»

general information

Circularium was a sight-specific scenography and dance performance, that took place in the Munot rotunda at Schaffhausen. Instead of following a clear narrative, the performance concentrated on creating unique images of lighting, movement, and sound. These associated with the history of the building and gave the viewer a new way of perceiving this famous swiss sight. The performance was split in two parts, whose musical scores were composed by two different composers. In the first part, the performance follows the first book of John Milton’s paradise lost and tells the story of the creation of hell, by the fallen angels. In the second part, the audience was drawn back to a calmer state of mind, through meditative sceneries and sounds. The libretto for the singers consisted of excerpts from Johannes Kepler’s Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596).

commentary on the first part (David Eliah Bangerter)

The score for the first part consisted of 15 cosmographic prayers in musical form, composed by David Eliah Bangerter. Reaching from a Capella trios, ensemble pieces and solos, to purely electroacoustic intermezzi with the use of 8 loudspeakers and 2 subwoofers. The music was written in remembrance of Claudio Monteverdi’s second book of madrigals. New, inventive techniques were introduced by the composer, by subdividing the octave into 15 steps with the help of circular, geometric shapes such as a torus. Additional to that, the composer worked with sounds from virtually created instruments (image below), by using physical modeling procedures and special software. The newly established sounds were mostly used in the electroacoustic pieces enriching the classical score, sung by the soloists.

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commentary on the second part (Aleksandra Sucur)

The music for the second part, explored elements and fragments from the first part and musically entangled them in a Capella pieces for five voices. Introducing the style of composer Aleksandra Sucur, she attempted to combine classical music tradition, with modern, atmospheric soundscapes. In remembrance of the 16^th century, lighthearted dances with three counts were introduced and merged with the images, created through scenography and lighting scenery.