Comments on the making of ”Elements Of Joy”

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This piece was written for the exhibition “Gladjen att fa paket” (or freely translated “The joy of getting parcels”) at Postmuseum, Old Town, Stockholm, Sweden, produced by Unna design. The exhibition will last Oct 11, 2008 – Apr 26, 2009. My part was to create music for a room dedicated to peoples anecdotes about parcel-memories.
The music is built upon the main theme, the finale, that arrives about 15:45 into the piece. This idéa came early in the process, when reading the background material for the parcel-memories, and it did never let go, very persistent, so it became the main theme. There are two key elements in the main theme, the harmonization through the progression D-Dsus4-A and the counter 5/8-arpeggio that gets recycled in various forms throughout the piece. Key A, tempo 108 bpm, length 18:53. Below is a an index with comments for the different parts:
0:00 The Intro, the 5/8-counterfigure from the finale is reduced by 8x of the original speed. With reverersed pitch and polyrythmic filterdelays.

1:32 Same thing, but now pitch is reversed back to the original.

2:23 The first harpcomment based on the finale chords.

3:23 The Angeltheme, subtle chimes, mallets and a synthpad to bring in air.

4:53 The Caleidoscope-cluster, or the the counterfigure in high speed, is inspired by the special cloth used in the room, also the parcels, logistics, transport, and the exitement of waiting for the parcels.

5:37 Surprice! The parcel arrives, …and also the horns, a sisterfigure to the final 5/8.

6:37 A sound collage made played with Kalimba and rythmic recordings from the surroundings of the museum.

7:48 Wow, a parcel! Flute and marimba plays an excited and happy melody, think childhood and the joy of getting presents, christmas, etc. Music evolves into a more dramatic through the customs and logistics /corporate track. At 9:50 the parcel is on it’s way to the final destination, accompanied by some uptempo 6/4 jazz.

11:19 Back to the Intro, later in the pattern though.

13:13 The Caleidiscope-cluster is back.

13:47 Harpcomments.

15:09 The main theme arrives, First with prominent acoustic guitars, later on the counterfigure takes over and then the choral transcendense finally it ends in the fanfare, this time distant. Theese memories… in a kind of meta-state or sense, … parcels that made a great difference to your life … or made a lifelong imprint…

18:22 Back to the slowed down counterfigure… and then it all starts over (loop)

/Niklas Ahman