Meitar ensemble:
Roy Amotz – flutes
Gilad Harel – clarinets
Moshe Aharonov – violin
Jonathan Gotlibovitch – cello
Amit Dolberg – piano
Guy Feder – conductor
In a complex joining of events, simple repetition directs the listener towards new elements and insights. Each reappearance of a given material allows the listener to absorb more and more details.
Variating the repetitive structure guides the listener towards taking in the subtle differences; accenting or blurring certain elements, changing the dimension of a gesture, focusing on smaller elements of the entire gesture, etc.
Chinese Whispers (or Telephone game, as named in the United States) is a reference to the universally known game. This Work is inspired by the idea contained in its tittle; using repetition and variation to slowly de-figure an original message.
Human gestures such as stuttering and respiration are part of the language I used in this project. The piece is constructed of several parts, which zoom in on smaller elements of the initial material. This piece was written for the Meitar Ensemble to be premiered at the MATA Festival, NYC.
Shlomi Gvili – recording technician
Eyal Mahabad – recording assistant
Noam Dorembus – recording producer and tonmeister
Ofer Pelz, Samuel Bonnet – mix
Recorded at the Ogen Studio, Kibbutz HaOgen, mixed at CIRMMT, Montreal
Press-reviews about the work
“Mr. Pelz’s fluttering “Chinese Whispers” brought the five excellent Meitar players, including the clarinetist Jonathan Hadas and the violinist Moshe Aharonov, together. The end — long seconds of toneless evocation of breathing — was as delicate as music gets.”
Zachary Woolfe, The New-York Times review of the MATA Festival concert 18.4.2013
Chinese Whispers (2013) peut être considéré comme un prolongement de Convergence. Commande de l’ensemble Meitar, la pièce s’ouvre avec un passage percussif auquel se mélangent le souffle des instruments à vent et les soupirs des cordes. Après un long glissando collectif (où l’on retrouve, comme chez Philippe Leroux, une inspiration « électronique » appliquée à la musique acoustique), la pièce finit par exhaler son dernier souffle à travers les instruments à vents. C’est dans ce genre de moments que résident l’originalité d’Ofer Pelz : ce qui n’est habituellement qu’un effet sonore devient chez lui matière à musique.”
Martin Guerpin, ResMusica, about the Meitar concert at La chapelle Historique, Montreal 30.4.2013
“The opening piece ‘Chinese Whispers’ by Ofer Pelz, revealed unexplored angles combining musical instrument noise, such as blowing without sound, with sounds, and created a story of continuous-truncated sounds and original and beautiful musical worlds.”
Noam Ben Zeev about a concert of Meitar ensemble, Haaretz (in hebrew)
