Number pews (multiples of primes always draw me)

A long-project begins; spent the morning playing in the extraordinary chapel of Bergen’s Lepramuseet. Just a beginning, and watch this space 1 6 15

Sound files-just rips from camera mic? LO-FI!!!!
Finding my way into the space.

8 Minute improvisation, with cars and rain (1 6 15)

Bach-D minor Sarabande (still exploring acoutistic)

One pew, for the deaf patients 1 6 15

Playing in the centre of the church, facing the South Door-spectral G (and a little D string)

Tree in Lepramuseet Kloster and architectural detail 30 5 15 Bergen

It’s still raining

Tartini-Crossing the Border/Being [working title]

Lepramuseet Bergen

Tartini-30 ‘Piccole Sonate’

Philip Glass-Strung Out

Evis Sammoutis-Nicosia Etudes

Peter Sheppard Sk?rved – Violin

Description

 Peter Sheppard Sk?rved can be found in the spaces of the Lepramuseet during the day, by visitors, echoing Giuseppe Tartini’s daily violinistic meditations in the Basilica San Antonio, Padua. Lepramuseet is a historic space in a modern city, with the rattle and hum of daily life tangible outside, but serving to emphasise its extraordinary calm. Balancing the 18^th Century music, Philip Glass’s spatial ‘Strung Out’, for walking player, and the premiere of Evis Sammoutis’ ‘Nikosia Etudes’, created in the modern border capital of the divided island of Cyprus. 

Layout (timeframe)

A series of during the day ‘in residencies’-Peter can be found playing in the space, maybe 10-5, ideally over 2-3 days, ending with a more ‘performed’ evening event (maybe late night), incorporating an overview of the 160 (!) Tartini movements, the Glass and the new Sammoutis miniatures.

(Peter working in Lepramuseet Chapel June 2015)

Overview

Peter Sheppard Sk?rved responds to the extraordinary ambience, architecture and history of Bergen’s Lepramuseet with a project inspired by Giuseppe Tartini’s cycle of solo sonatas (30 in all) which he composed in the last 20 years of his life. Tartini was born in present-day Slovenia, but spent all his life in Padua, where he was sought out by musicians, philosophers, artists and visitors, building a ‘school of nations’. Each day, he would go to the Basilica of San Antonio and play, for himself, by himself, overheard by the visitors and worshippers, as he carried out this daily musical ‘office’. His 6 hour cycle of works was built around this practice, and is filled with references to the musics of his childhood, ranging from Istrian folk music to Islamic chant. His manuscript is filled with coded references to Torquato Tasso’s ‘Ierusalemme Liberata’. It can also be seen as a giant experiment in the new harmony he had imagined, built around the growing science and philosophy of harmonics. Peter Sheppard Sk?rved is the first violinist to perform, research and record the whole of this cycle (Volume 3, on the Toccata Classics label) was released to critical acclaim last month. Link to this project: https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2012/01/30-days-of-tartini-piccole-sonate/

(Green Line Nikosia-Peter Sheppard December 2014)

Over the past years, Peter and the Cypriot composer Evis Sammoutis have been building a project around the extraordinary border city of Nicosia, long scarred by a ‘no man’s land’ between the Greek and Turkish zones of the city. Their work is grounded in ‘in situ’ experimentation and guided improvisation, much of it ‘transgressive’ in the bullet ridden ruins on the border itself, increasingly the preserve of the natural world, amongst the traffic which speeds through the ancient lanes of the city, and in the hundreds of workshops where local craftspeople work, ranging from metalworkers to coffin makers, in medieval, roman and Greek spaces, the legacy of the city-modernity as palimpsest. Evis is increasingly well known for his pioneering work with Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocal-Solisten Stuttgart, and the Arditti Quartet. His collaboration with Peter has resulted in many new works and films, working with Peter’s Kreutzer Quartet, Rohan da Saram, and the founding of the annual contemporary music festival working with the Pharos Trust in Cyprus. Link to the project: https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2014/12/nikosia-concerto/

Peter Sheppard Sk?rved (Cyprus 2015” ‘Bo’:Danish. Old Norse:’Bua’(Dwelling)’Bod’:Cornish (House)-early toponym (O.E)-‘Bos’:To be.”)

Philip Glass’s ‘Strung Out’ is an epochal ‘gallery work’ written early in his career for ‘walking violinist’, and reflects both his study in India and his work with Nadia Boulanger. It is written on a long strip of manuscript, which is strung around a space, or around the audience. Over the past decade, Peter has performed this work in a number of spaces, ranging from the concrete beauty of the Galeria Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City, in counterpoint with the work of Jackson Pollock at the Tate Modern, or in a shared performance/reading with his poet wife, Malene Sk?rved, in a disused sail-maker’s loft in Dover. Link to one of these projects: https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2014/12/nikosia-concerto/