Tod & Wahnsinn

Tod & Wahnsinn is a composition in music, poetry and video. Inspired by Schuberts famous song “Der Tod und das Mädchen” and Dylan Thomas poem “Now, say nay”, Noordegraaf made a work that manipulates time. As the listener slides into the ‘Death and the Maiden’ slumber, time is changed both musically and visually.

Ralph van Raat plays the piano live on stage, his video mirror image right above him slides out of sync as they both play a rigid chord sequence. The tail of their piano sounds is stretched electronically, slowing down the perception of time even more.

Inspired by Dylan Thomas’ famous poem, Noordegraaf constructed a digital film made by using a flat-bed scanner to record the pianist in such a way, that the scanner was moved around his face, hands, arms while scanning it’s image. That way you get images that feature nog just the front, but also the sides of ones head. An image constructie in slow motion time, rather than a fast and instantaneous moment frozen in time a normal photo usually represents.

These images were stitched together digitally and transferred to an old fashioned analogue 8mm film. At the heart of this piece, a film projector starts up and plays this film, together with Thomas’ poem. Both music and media are thrown back in time, creating a magical atmosphere.