PAUSE from Jonathan Nangle on Vimeo.

PAUSE, for Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass and Video Ballet

Inspired by the idea of data glitches in both music and visual medium, PAUSE emerged from a short two bar phrase from Charles Ives’ ‘Concord Sonata’ (1919), specifically from the third movement, ‘The Alcott’s’. This snippet of material was processed through custom built software that rearranged and deliberately glitched the music and the outcome of this was then notated and served as a springboard to new material and provided the piece with its aesthetic. Material is often repeated, as if stuck on loop, with sudden rapid shifts to new musical fragments, like a needle on a record player skipping over the grooves, sampling at random from the beginning, middle and end.

The video aspect of the piece features the young Irish ballet dancer, Jamie Haughton. Filmed over two days, the video is an amalgamation of short snippets of material, caught in a loop like VHS video stuck on pause.

PAUSE was written for Crash Ensemble and commissioned by The Dock with funds generously provided by the Arts Council of Ireland.