Borealis 2009

REYNALDO YOUNG, MEGAFON OG KIRKENS BYMISJON - MOLLY-HOUSE

at 1745
Venue: BERGEN CATHEDRAL

Molly-House is an ‘assemblage’, having no particular order for its set of freely juxtaposed parts. Some of these parts are soloistic, and conventionally notated (nineteen ‘arias’ derived from four operas by Handel). Others are ensembles (trios and quartets) with various degrees of pitch specifi city, or indeterminate ‘solos’. Some (containing lists of numbers) are for electronic gadgets (hairdryers, mixers, drills, vacuum-cleaners, vibrators etc). The proposal is for a potential ‘community’ in which any smallish number of players (with differing levels of expertise) could creatively co-exist: a house with an unpredictable number of co-operative occupants. A molly-house was (18th century) a house of pleasure and fantasy, inverting (altering, substituting, transforming) the external world, and making (almost) anything possible. Mollies - then as now - thrived on being adaptable.
- MICHAEL FINNISSY

To celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the International Network of Street Papers, this performance of Michael Finnissy’s Molly-House will be given in collaboration with Megafon and Kirkens Bymisjon. Working under the guidance of Reynaldo Young, composer and founder of London’s Cardboard Citizens New Music Ensemble, the participants will perform alongside students from the Grieg Academy and Trinity College of Music in London