Variations on Global Crowd are listening in on urban assemblies, finding in the crowd in a city square, a moment of focus that alleviates anxiety. From Buenos Aires to Cairo, Istanbul, New York, Madrid, Kyiv and Warsaw, this is the sound of overdrive and re-composition into a new form, going beyond its initial representation. They are listening closely to the social power released at the grassroots level.
Although protest movements that respond to the needs and desires of so many have not managed to achieve lasting change and create new, more democratic and just societies; this collective expression of the desire for change is constantly nagging, when diversity creates strategy and freely formulates the idea of the assembly, thus establishing the mechanism for shaping a social alternative.
The new piece of music for amplified harpsichord and sampler composed by Karol Nepelski is a quest for the mood that accompanies mass assemblies in cities all over the world, in which, nevertheless, solidarity or residents’ discontent has led to socio-political changes. The electronic layer of the sampler uses short excerpts of recordings (samples) available on social media, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter: sounds of the crowd, public concerts, the audio sphere of city meetings and protest movements, as well as speeches of leaders, politicians and authority figures. It is a quasi-opera, with the sampler in the role of the human voice (voices of individuals and entire groups of people), and the harpsichord as the accompanying orchestra. The world premiere of the piece was entrusted to the internationally-renowned harpsichordist, an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music – Gośka Isphording.
The event was part of the programme of the 1st Biennale Warszawa „Let’s Organise Our Future!”, which took place in Warsaw from 13.05.2019 – 23.06.2019 and was dedicated to the creation of organisational alternatives working towards a progressive future.
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Fund for the Promotion of Culture as part of the „Composing Commissions” programme implemented by the Institute of Music and Dance.
