Lentils, 2006, for piano, MIDI piano, narrator, percussion, alto, and live electronics || Text: Dganit Elyakim
According to the Torah, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a stew of lentils. This musical interplay between an original text and theme, and two variations is pregnant with message. The original text is comprised of quotes and references from different times covering the entire history span of human kind: from the bible and folk stories to Ayn Rand, Martin Heidegger and others. The two variations, on the other hand, are built with different levels of Markov Chains with grammatical conditions. The first variation is eerily reminiscent of a typical oracle speech. The second one, however, is obsessively hammering the same points. Only the last text, which is the original one, is intelligible and tells the story behind the rants and prophecies. The music and the text echo each other in terms of spirit. The piece was composed with the use of different algorithms, on “AC Toolbox” by Paul Berg (Institution of Sonology, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague), intertwined with Arab music, live electronics and Industrial sounds. --To purchase a hard copy of the score and parts click here -- --To purchase a pdf version, for research, non-commercial performances and for the live electronics patch on Max/MSP click here. Please contact me for the password --
Studio Recording, HaTeiva, 2016
Alto- Noa Frenkel; Piano – Teodora Stepancic; Percussion – Haggai Fershtman; Live electronics- Ronald Boersen; Narrator – Dganit Elyakim
Live recording, Gadeamus Festival 2006 @ Muziekgebouw
Performing: Ayelet Harpaz- alt, Claire Edwardes- percussion, Dganit Elyakim- narrator, Nora Mulder- piano, Ronald Boersen – live electronics.