Traces of a Disco
for three musicians

Description

Traces of a Disco (2018) – for cimbalom, bass clarinet in Bb & double bass. Commissioned by Rachel Swanick with support from Arts Council England, Psappha & The Whitworth Art Gallery. Completed March 2017 (Den Haag). First performance 17 May 2018 by Psappha Ensemble, Whitworth Art Gallery. Dedicated to Carl Rosman. Duration ca. 5’40”

Traces of a Disco is a musical realisation of Plato’s Disco, a sculpture by David Batchelor that is permanently exhibited at The Whitworth. The piece explores gradual shifts in colour, luminance, sensation and awareness.

The motivation behind the original sculpture is as follows:

“Plato maintained that most people’s relationship with reality was like being chained in a cave, with a fire behind them, watching the flickering shadows being cast on the wall in front of them. All distortions and tricks of the light. (The philosopher, he maintained, had to leave the cave…)

The ‘disco’ part of the title is a reference to the rotating mirror-ball quality of the work. I like to mix up references in my works and their titles to high culture (philosophy, other works of art) and to popular culture (discos, fairgrounds, street culture).”

– David Batchelor

Programme Note

Drawing on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Plato’s Disco by David Batchelor is a rotating stalactite of stained glass triangles that projects endlessly changing colour patterns on the walls around it.

Bethan Morgan-Williams’ musical response to this sculpture is also gently mysterious. Soft, ragged chords give way to a mechanical cimbalom dance. Drops of water in the cave? The reality behind Plato’s curtain? Or the far-off twinkle of a glitterball?

– Tim Rutherford Johnson