Muzika Oro Balionui/ Music For Hot Air Balloon (2011)
Duration:
30′
Instrumentation:
Hot Air Balloon, and 6 instruments
Programme Note
Music for Hot Air Balloon took place at the Druskomanija Festival in Lithuania in 2011. Named ‘Children of the Wind’, although better known as the ‘Hot Air Balloon’ piece, it consisted of seven small pieces for hot air balloon, six instruments, and a conductor with a shell (myself). All the pieces were performed on the ground, except for the last one, where the air balloon lifted up into the sky at the end of the piece. The piece was commissioned by Asta Kaušpėdaitė, a hot air balloonist who has been involved with the Druskomanija festival for many years as a designer.
Basically, there were only three different sounds that the hot air balloon could produce, and short rhythmical structures could be made from short and long sounds. The notation was left very open so that Asta could understand the instructions without prior musical education.
The air balloon has strict rules for how often and for how long it can play sounds, in order to stay on the ground and be controlled to prevent it from falling to the side. Weather conditions were also very important. In order to perform the piece, we needed “no wind and no rain.” Researching a performance place was challenging; we had to find a place in the town center that was wide enough, calm enough, and beautiful enough to perform with the air balloon. There were no perfect places, so we chose a wide and beautiful one, but not very calm. Putting the performance on the program was a big risk. We deliberately chose the time for the performance, one hour before sunset when all the winds usually calm down. If there was rain or wind, we had a plan B; we would perform only six pieces (the ones performed on the ground) and without the envelope of the air balloon, which would not look as impressive.
But we were really lucky, the weather was perfect! The piece was performed by the Hot Air Balloon (performed by Asta Kauspedaite), six instruments (flute – Anna Petrashevica, trumpet – Mihai Sorohan, flugelhorn – Martin Q Larson, contrabass clarinet – Yann Le Nestour, melodica – Ana Ablamonova, and wooden fall – Rita Maciliunaite) and conductor – shell player (Ruta Vitkauskaite).