Biography

Ferran CRUIXENT

F. Cruixent studied piano and music theory at the “Conservatori Superior de Música de Barcelona“. In 1999 he studied contemporary composition as well as composition for film and television at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich. He obtained a Master's degree in contemporary composition in 2006.

His musical work, published by Sikorski, includes commissioned works for orchestra, chamber works, vocal music and music for motion pictures, and is internationally performed by numerous orchestras (Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, etc.) under such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Christoph Poppen, Hannu Lintu and Karl-Heinz Steffens. He has served as a member of the jury at the first international composition competition Voice of China (Beijing, 2013) and as composer-in-residence at the international chamber music festival "Sommersprossen" (2010 and 2013, Rottweil, Germany). Cruixent was selected by the Joan Miró Foundation to perform his musical/visual project "Urban Surround" during the season 2008/09 season.

Cyborg (2010) for symphonic orchestra introduced the concept of "cyber singing", communicating real instruments and technology in a new philosophical way. Virtual for symphonic orchestra (DRP, 2011, Germany), Solaria (Haydn Orchestra Bolzano, 2015, Italy) and Binary (ARD Competition, 2015, Germany) also explore the expressive potential of the “cyber singing" technique. "Focs d’artifici" (Fireworks, 2008), for percussion and orchestra was selected as a "repertoire work" at the ARD International Competition (Munich) in 2013.

He is also frequently involved in many international films and videogame productions, working as a pianist, orchestrator and composer.

Work(s)

" Big Data "

For large orchestra

Sikorski

SÉLECTION 2017

Big Data for orchestra is a one-movement work inspired by the composer’s fascination with human dependence on technology. It is concerned not only with the obsession, but also the magic behind data clusters in the computerised civilisation landscapes of the future.

Big Data is a term for large and complex ‘data sets’ used for strong predictive analytics. Every human being who has an internet connection produces a unique digital shadow that cannot be deleted.

In this piece the orchestra imitates sounds of an old Modem-Fax device as a metaphor of the origin of Big Data, as well as encrypted Morse code messages such as ‘we-are-data’. Even ‘music data’ information from other works written by me (such as ‘Binary’, ‘Virtual’ and ‘Solaria’) are also used in this piece, in order to play with the global sense of Big Data. Musicians are required to perform using special techniques, such as ‘Cyber Singing’ (used for the first time in 2010 in my symphonic work ‘Cyborg’). ‘Cyber Singing’ introduces a new possibility of interaction between the composer and the musician, thereby enabling genuine communication to be attained. The audio file prepared by the composer himself is played by the musician from his mobile phone, a device commonly used for other purposes. Two mp3 audio files are required to be played during the work. The first of these (Singing Comet 67P) refers to recorded sounds (in 2014) coming from the Comet 67P using the Rosetta spacecraft magnetometer instrument. The result is a strange clicking noise that changes in pitch and tempo, like an unknown radio-voice from beyond. Another musical theme to be heard in this piece refers to the old song ‘Daisy Bell’ (Harry Dacre, 1892), programmed (1961) on an IBM 704 computer in the earliest known demonstration of computer speech synthesis. Auditory researchers also used this melody in 1974 for the first demonstration of ‘pure dichotic’ (two-ear only) perception. This melody works here as metaphor of the beginning of virtual intelligence.”

Ferran Cruixent