Our series of free Afternoon Recitals continues, we welcome Jack Campbell, violinist to our Fratry Hall .
While entry to our concerts is complimentary, we encourage contributions during the collection at the end of each performance to support both the talented artist and the Cathedral. Your generosity will help us continue to bring such events to the community. We look forward to seeing you there!
Audience Notice:
To help everyone enjoy the performance, we kindly ask that audience members are respectful to the musician and fellow guests throughout the concert.
If you think you may need to leave during the performance, we recommend choosing a seat near the back of the Fratry. Where possible, please wait for a break in the programme before exiting, to avoid disruption. In case of emergency, you’re of course free to leave at any time.
Thank you for your understanding – we look forward to welcoming you!
About the artist:
I am a composer, violinist, and arts producer.
Having commissioned and premiered over 20 works for solo violin by composers across the globe, I currently create and collaborate in France, England, The United States, Germany, Switzerland, and across Canada. My compositional projects build bridges between contemporary classical music and visual arts, dance, and theatre.
I work as a soloist, chamber musician, improvisor, and recording artist for LP, video, radio, and sound installation. It has been my privilege to collaborated artistically with and/or perform at: The United Nations Summit of the Future (NYC), The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park (UK), The Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, Conway Hall (London), Lightsound Festival (London), Splendor (Amsterdam), Hosek Contemporary (Berlin), The National Museum of Computing (England), Paul Sacher Foundation (Basel), Musée d’Art Moderne (Paris),
Musée Picasso (Paris), The Cuore Piano Trio (Vienna), The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver Public Library, Belle Spirale Dance Company, Arts Umbrella, The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Day of Music), Ballet BC Emerging Artists, Canadian Music Centre, Redshift Music/Records, Vancouver Pro Musica, SUM Gallery, Gallery 881, 101.9 FM Radio, 100.5 FM Radio, Gabriola Arts Council, and UBC School of Music.
"A journey from electro-mechanical computation to electro-acoustic composition, this 50 minute piece of music for violin and found-sound is the accumulation of five years of study and discovery. Written in collaboration with the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, UK, this piece uses the beauty of music to celebrate scientific evolution and revolution and the human spirit’s resistance of evil and tyranny.”
I believe that music serves three inherent functions:
• To memorialize and contextualize history
• To, in the same fashion as a scientist, provide a canvas on which to explore the breadth of the human imagination
• To encourage and cherish connection, innovation, and intellectual progress
Over the last five years, I have built computational machines and mechanism that are musical equivalents of the enigma and bombe machines. The computational mathematics and computational mechanics of encryption are precisely the same as the original historic machines which are celebrated in this museum. The difference is that instead of encrypting language, these machines encrypt music. The musical alphabet and keyboard have been adopted over from primary alphabetic characters to musical pitches: this has been created by the analysis of statistical linguistic data in frequency, use, and purpose, between the notes and keys of music, and the usages of letters within the German language.
This musical enigma machine then generates musical pitch, melodies, harmonies, and forms, simply by imputing a melody of choice, and letting the musical enigma machine transform it through all it's various devices of encryption. Once at the highest level of encryption, these musical structures are then deconstructed by plugging them through the musical bombe machine. Both the processes of musical encryption and decryption, with all the various transformations undergone in that process, play out musically across this piece. Also included within this work are recordings of the mechanical noises made by the enigma and bombe machines. It is a relatively unknown fact that Alan Turing himself designed the world's very first device for generating computer music. I have taken these found sound recordings of the bombe and enigma machines and musically manipulated them using sound softwares directly stemming from Turing's musical inventions. While the violin plays the enigma/ bombe constructed pitches, the computer backing track will play sonically designed enigma/bombe recordings made using Turing's invention's decedents.
Please note that the piece starts with highest level of encrypted musical complexity at the apex of the musical enigma's work, and you will slowly hear this encryption unravelled by the musical bombe, until at the end of the piece, we are left with the simple musical melody that was originally encrypted. I invite you to try and listen to the melody as it is unravelled, and hear the patterns of pitch that emerge. It is also fun to note that the rhythms you hear the violin play at the beginning of the piece are those musical pitches' phonetic alphabetical equivalents in the natural rhythms of morse code. The melody which I have chosen to encrypt which you will hear finally unveiled at the end of the piece is the traditional song "Molly Malone," which was Alan Turing's favourite piece of music. Turing himself was a violinist. The story goes that when the police came to take him away, he was sitting playing this piece on the violin...
The rotors and plugboard and other encryption devices of the enigma machine are set to the exact historical settings of the 18th of October, 1944. October 18th was the day on which I finished the piece, it is one of the very few days of the war for which we know the exact historical settings of the enigma machine, and it is the day on which the Nazi's executed Victor Ullman, one of the greatest composers. This is a thematic tribute to the brutal fates suffered by artists during the war for pursing freedom of intellect, and an acknowledgment that the work done by the Bletchley Park team helped allow for a world where the majority of musicians, like me, can continue to express ourselves freely.
Finally, the musical form of this piece is that of an Agnus Dei. An Agnus Dei is an ancient musical form; Agnus Dei is also the codename of the first Turing/ Welchman Bombe Machine. I could not be more grateful to be sharing this project, of which I am so proud!
Special Edition: Dance Artist Alexis Fletcher will join this special performance to provide movement and choreography reflective of the inner-mechanical workings of this machine as well as emotional physical reflection on this time in history!
“Campbell is a young master of the arts…demonstrating prodigal talents….and making waves across the
Classical Music Scene” -London Daily News
“At 21, Jack Campbell shakes up classical music with his fresh approach.” -Indie Boulevard Magazine
“Jack Campbell revives tradition with a modern twist.” -Fame Magazine
“A young Canadian Firebrand” -Lightsound Festival
“Campbell Builds Bridges Across the Arts” -Stir Vancouver
No tickets or booking are required - all welcome
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