Tomek Szczepaniak performaning Roren @ CK Zamek, Poznan, 31.10.2022

Roren was written for Colin Frank during my PhD second year. Colin premiered the piece at Fuel Cafe (Manchester) on 8 February 2019 and performed it again the next day, in Huddersfield, as part of the curatorial project SPACE AS AN INSTRUMENT.

Colin Frank premiering Roren at the Fuel Cafe Bar, Manchester, the 8th of February 2019.

Roren’s composition process was characterised by a physical approach to the instrument and a deep exploration of its sonic possibilities (and limitations). Before writing a single note, I spent several days investigating the instrument’s reactions to different playing techniques. The “standard” way of playing the lion’s roar is by creating friction against the string with the hands. However, in Roren this technique is only used in the Quasi cadenza section and two specific moments before that section (the two moments where the position of the left hand—which holds the string—shifts). During most of the piece, the performer uses a bow instead to produce sound. 

Another page taken from the performance notes in the score featuring some pictures of Colin Frank performing the piece at the Inauguration concert of SPACE AS AN INSTRUMENT, in Huddersfield.

In my practice, the selection of techniques and the examination of the instrument’s capacities frequently constitute a mode of musical thinking—as much as the choice of a notational system or the formalisation of musical processes—for instrumental possibilities constantly guide my compositional decisions. When you look at an instrument, it does not only “invite” you to play it in certain ways; it also points to possible directions, showing possible paths to follow. In a way, an instrument can be a map and a territory to explore at the same time. In Roren, it is possible to follow how a gradual change of the point at which the left hand holds the string of the lion’s roar directs the course of the work (see Figure below). As the piece progresses, the left hand changes its position, transforming the instrument and affecting the possibilities that it affords. Indeed, the piece starts with a minimum distance between the left hand and the drum, which amounts to quite restricted possibilities for bow movement. The progressive distancing of the left hand from the instrument makes the playable segment of the string longer and therefore it allows the incorporation of new ways (techniques) of performing with the bow (in the Figure below, some of them are indicated graphically at the bottom). After reaching the maximal distance, the left hand finally drops the string completely at the Quasi cadenza; in this final section the bow is not used, so the performer only plays the instrument with both hands. I like to consider the transition of the left hand as a transformation (a sort of metamorphosis) of the instrument, which in a way (because of the widening of the playable segment of the string) becomes bigger as the piece unfolds—the instrument is not the same anymore. Furthermore, several kinds of sounds and gestures reappear at different moments of the piece, but as the instrument mutates, these are modulated and therefore never exact repetitions.

Dashed lines and arrows represent connections, repetitions and re-contextualisations. The character of the beginning of the piece is extended on the third page: the delicate bow strokes in pianissimo are recalled, but this time, as the range of movement of the bow is larger than in the first page, vertical movements of the bow are now possible and incorporated. Another connection between pages two and six indicates an almost exact repetition (same articulation, melodic contour, dynamics, etc.), but again, as the position of the left hand has shifted, the repetition on page six is altered by the longer vibrating segment of the string, resulting in a different sound quality and pitch (the string, being longer, will produce a lower pitch). Finally, the fortissimo, distorted and violent character of the section starting on page four is replicated in the quasi cadenza, this time without the bow, but only using the hands.

In 2022, I revised the electronic part of the piece during a residency at the VICC Visby International Centre for Composers. This new version, performed by Tomek Szczepaniak, is the one you can watch in the video on the top of this page. You can also listen to Tomek’s performance on SoundCloud.