HENRIK HELLSTENIUS

Concerto for percussion, vocal sextet and orchestra.

Based on text by Richard Sennett and Henrik Hellstenius.

Hans Kristian Kjos Sørensen -percussion and voice
Nordic Voices – singers
Stavanger Symphonic Orchestra
Ilan Volkov – conductor

“Public Behaviour” is a seven parts “concerto grosso” for six singers, solo percussion/voice and orchestra on texts by the composer, based on ideas and quotations from the American sociologist Richard Sennett and others.

The work thematize the fact that we, as individuals in different collectives, have to look at new ways of being together, rather than cultivating an individualism that has long since been exhausted. The question Hellstenius wants to ask in different ways in this work is how we function together. What strategies do we have for interaction in a time  Richard Sennet believes is characterized by a late capitalism that, rather than building character, reduces our ability to solve things together. Whether this is correct or not can be debated, but in any case, Sennett’s books Corrosion of character and Together are interesting analyzes of the influence of the great social machine right down to the individual’s ability to see and be with others. Has not the market and cultural commerce’s false representation of us as sovereign, individual consumers and “experiencers” of the world only confused people and made us believe that we don’t have to develop  our abilities in interaction and togetherness? And must not our communities, the ways of being together, change in step with the enormous pressure from the market place in our “flexible late capitalism”. Must we not be aware of the effects this has on our lives and morals. Not only does it change working life, but the lack of predictability and the individualized working life also changes and characterizes the relationship between people. It changes our formation patterns and ability to work together on tasks. Who wants to teach their children that it pays to be conscientious and predictable, when employers can at any time change places of production, conditions of work and methods of production.

The piece falls in seven parts where part I. Do I,  part V. Listening and part VI. Am I?  are related in questioning social relations on a more individual level. Raising issues of how to respond and listen to “the other” to borrow the term for the French philosopher Emanuel Levinas.  Part II. No Matter,  IV. Politeness and Anger and VII. The Square are all more concerned with the collective sides of politeness, anger and social behaviour. Part  II. Falling Apart, is a pure instrumental movement where the solo percussionist both plays and whistles forming a complex web descending and ascending lines together with the orchestra.

This tension between internal and external, the self and the other, is etched into this music, being as it is concerned with the anxieties, desires and uncertainties that lurk within each of us and guide, shape, distort and determine our relationship with everyone else. In one sense, everything about this composition, from the title – Public Behaviour – to the modes of expression and every single word uttered in it, suggests that it is directed outward, to society in general and to those individuals in particular with whom some form of intimacy is desired. Yet listen again and the perspective shifts; it’s not difficult to hear much of what is expressed as being part of an intense inner monologue: a litany of doubt, affirmation and frustration being whispered, said, sung and shouted in a way that, though musically loud, one can imagine is actually silent, playing out as an unspoken, internal argument derived from the thoughts, feelings and fantasies that we either wish we could or never would dare to say out loud.

The music thereby embodies not merely a tension, but a paradox, being simultaneously internal and external, spoken and silent. And this paradox goes further: Hellstenius has assembled groups of singers and instrumentalists who must perform together, and it is only through that act of performative unity that the disunity underlying the music can be fully articulated. Another way of putting this would be to say that the singers are united in their disunity. It is this that dominates Public Behaviour, to the extent that the vocalisation of the disunity actually seems to precede the music. Conventionally we tend to think of vocal compositions as a musical ‘setting’ of text, but the situation here is otherwise: the music often appears to be a resulting by-product of the articulation of the words.

This articulation is highly stylised with a shifting nature and behaviour. The first two movements of Public Behaviour, ‘Do I?’ and ‘No Matter’, demonstrate unity, the singers enunciating the words and syllables of a shared text as if they were fractured components of a single expressive voice. Contrast this with what follows: after an instrumental section tellingly titled ‘Falling Apart’, we arrive at the fourth movement, ‘Politeness and Anger’, where the singers are now a fragmented diaspora, an array of disconnected voices united only by their mutual insecurities and frustrations, featuring a loud crying motif that encapsulates pure desperation. Language and sentiment have become similarly disjunct, veering wildly between positive and negative, politeness and vulgarity, with a pervasive undercurrent of internal and external questioning: “Why am I nice to you?”, “Why can’t you be nice to me?”.

Henrik Hellstenius’ music provides a telling demonstration of the need for, and the perils (internal and external) pertaining to community. They are in some respect stark works, offering neither consolation nor resolution, but instead manifesting the problem directly. Yet in so doing, Hellstenius makes clear that, for all the doubts and despair that might plague or even thwart our efforts, the ultimate prize –  connection, community – makes the attempt not merely worthwhile but utterly necessary.

 Text: Simon Cummings and Henrik Hellstenius