Contracanthus: a study for unaccompanied double-bass

“Contracanthus” – A study for Unaccompanied Double-BassDouble-bass: Bljorn IankeMusic: Cecilie OreWooden Sculptures: Vibeke KiellandThe title is not – as one might tend to suspect – a misspelt “contra-cantus” or “counter-chant”, but rather a contraction of “contra” and “acanthus”, the former term meaning not only “against”, but indicating also the lowest musical register, and the latter being a well-known plant named after the Greek word for “pine” or “thorn”, a plant much imitated a s an ornament because of the beautiful lobes and nerves of its leaves. In fact, the music tries to reflect some of the contrasting motions of that ornament between low and high, between the short and abrupt and the slow fluid. The music “grows” upwards out of the ground i n three stages, each starting with a rather chaotic preamble before proceeding in more orderly, acanthine curves.The programme was conceived during a workshop for young composers organized in 1987 buy the NRK. Like all the other productions carried out on that occasion, it had to be a cheap and relatively short one. Challenged to disprove television'’ permanent excuse for not showing contemporary art programmes - that they are too expensive – the programme makers finished the present production at less than 1100 US dollars.