Edition·S publications are supported by the Danish Arts Foundation / Edition·S udgivelser er støttet af Statens Kunstfond
Composed
support from the Danish Arts Foundation Augustinus Fonden and William Demant Fonden
Supported by Koda’s Cultural Funds. Støttet af Kodas kulturelle midler.
Bára Gísladóttir
Lazy Venus Syndrome (2024) (in good company)
for solo flute and flute choir
Dur. 7′40″
Lazy Venus Syndrome was commissioned by the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation and written for Emmanuel Pahud in 2024 upon his receival of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. Three versions of the work have been made; Lazy Venus Syndrome (in good company) – a special edition for the Prize Concert where Pahud was joined by a flute choir of approximately 70 flutes at a few places in the piece, Lazy Venus Syndrome (all by itself) for solo flute, and lastly, Lazy Venus Syndrome (goes tech) for solo flute and electronics. The work was spun out of (quite abstract) thoughts on the universe, stars, planets, symmetrical systems, astrology and large cusps of void – all gaining further (un)clarity when I reread one of my favourite books, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk.
My Venus is damaged, or in exile, that’s what you say of a Planet that can’t be found in the sign where it should be. What’s more, Pluto is a negative aspect to Venus, and in my case Pluto rules the Ascendant. The result of this situation is that I have, as I see it, Lazy Venus syndrome. That’s what I call this Conformity. In this case we’re dealing with a Person whom fortune has gifted generously, but who has entirely failed to use their potential. Such People are bright and intelligent, but don’t apply themselves to their studies, and use their intelligence to play card games or patience instead. They have beautiful bodies, but they destroy them through neglect, poison themselves with harmful substances, and ignore doctors and dentists.
This Venus induces a strange kind of laziness – lifetime opportunities are missed, because you overslept, because you didn’t feel like going, because you were late, because you were neglectful. It’s a tendency to be sybaritic, to live in a state of mild semi-consciousness, to fritter your life away on petty pleasures, to dislike effort and be devoid of any penchant of competition. Long mornings, unopened letters, things put off for later, abandoned projects. A dislike of any authority and a refusal to submit to it, going your own way in taciturn, idle manner. You could say such people are of no use at all.
Olga Tokarczuk Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
PERFORMANCE NOTES
Trills and tremoli
Trills and tremoli occur in variable speed in the piece, where four lines indicate the fastest possible. Trills and tremoli can also increase and decrease in speed, indicated in the following way:
W.t. – whistle tones
In the score and parts, the fundamental position of the whistle tones is given in the form of a diamond head. Travel freely between the possible overtones. Ex:
Voice/Breath
Square noteheads indicate the use of voice or breath (and then which type of voice/breath). Further information in the score.
Harmonic timbral trills
Such trills occur throughout the piece. Sometimes, they are just ordinary, like so:
At times they should be vividly distorted or broken. This is indicated with graphics like so:
At times the distortion if trills is of a vocal manner, like so:
At one point, the flute part is divided into two stave. One containing purely the harmonic timbral trills and the second to portray the use of aa whispering shivering voice. A dashed-lined abstract figure is given for the voice, indicating a very free register, followed by a graphic line, indicating the movement within the free register given. Ex:
Some sort of distortive climax is reached in the following two bars:
The change of random trills becomes more rapid as the x-es within the bars become more frequent on the page. These trills should be distortive at all times. The dashed arrow indicated a gradual movement from harmonic timbral trills to harmonic air trills. The second bar should be in the form of pure air trills, but with a tint of the different, rapidly changes harmonics.
Rupture bars
Bars starting with a dashed barline and marked with a lightning image serve as rupture bars and should simply be performed as fast as possible. Ex:
Multiphonics
There’s one multiphonic passage in the piece. In the score, a specific multiphonic is giving along with aa fingering. However, this should be seen only as an example or option. If these particular multiphonics or the fingering do not work your your and/or your instrument, please feel free to find another fingering from which you can explore different multiphonics, preferably from G as written in the piece:
