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É«¿Ø´«Ã½ invites you to a rare performance of Calder Piece, composer Earler Brown’s sonic animation of his friendÌýAlexander Calder’sÌýmobileÌýChef d’orchestre.ÌýÌý

Brown, a major force in contemporary music and the AmericanÌýavant-gardeÌýsince the 1950s, was the creator of open form, a style of musical construction greatly indebted to the works ofÌýCalder.Ìý

Watch the performance:

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In 1963 the two embarked on a musical collaboration, for which Calder madeÌýChef d’orchestre,Ìýwhere four percussionists are ‘conducted’ by the mobile. Some 100 percussion instruments are employed in a performance where the movement of the sculpture is read by the percussionists, responding to the varying configuration of its elements. As well as functioning as conductor, the musicians actually play the mobile, making each performance both visually and musically unique. It was not until 1966 that the work was finished andÌýCalder PieceÌýwas first performed at the Théâtre de l’Atelier in Paris, early inÌý1967.Ìý

Calder PieceÌýis one of kind and Earle Brown insisted that the music must never be independent ofÌýChef d’orchestre. This major revival of a work not played for over 30 years is itsÌýUKÌýpremiere, performed by the percussion ensemble of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in collaboration with Gramophone Award-winning conductor RichardÌýBernas.ÌýÌý

November 1952, an abstract work by Brown entirely composed in graphic score, and fragments of his friend John Cage’s huge pieceÌýAtlas Eclipticalis,Ìýbased on the star charts of the Southern Hemisphere, complete theÌýprogramme.