In December 2016, Rose Bond will present a 70-minute animation, created in collaboration with students at Pacific Northwest College of Art, to accompany the Oregon premiere of French composer Olivier Messiaen’s 1949 Turangalîla-Symphonie, performed by the Oregon Symphony.
The Turangalîla-Symphonie is a 70-minute symphonic gumbo that melds a lush and exotic array of sounds and cultural influences, including birdsong, Balinese gamelan music, post-war popular culture, Sanskrit, and the myth of Tristan and Isolde. This iconoclastic work was meant to be experienced both visually and aurally—as a synesthetic experience that jolts audiences into hearing, seeing, and appreciating symphonic music in profound new ways.
The Turangalîla is a 20th-century symphonic masterpiece that challenged audiences in 1949 with a collage of unexpected sounds, rhythms, and resonances. Messian himself described the symphony as “superhuman, overflowing, dazzling, and abandoned.” It upended and transformed conventions of what symphonic music can and ought to be. Bond, along with a team of student animators from PNCA and professional projectionists, has the potential to upend and transform conventions of animation in this unique audio-visual collaboration with the Oregon Symphony. This collaboration celebrates and indulges the already synesthetic qualities of the piece, and breaks new ground for animation in Portland and beyond.
For ticketing information, visit the Oregon Symphony’s website.
