GONGS, SAILS, SCREWS Presented by Liszt Academy

Strange instruments, singing and clapping nuns, unusual polyphony and Latin masses set to music: the Liszt Kidz Academy samples all these this autumn – as well as, of course, examining what impact these have had on our favourite composers. The series Divine Music winds up its travels in the land of the exotic: Indonesia. There will be plenty to talk about: the origin of the word ‘gamelan’, the unusual instruments of the musical ensemble and their unfamiliar and – at least to the European ear – ‘untuned’ sounds. We explore Javanese music and the slendro scale through the music of a formation going by the name of Surya Kencana A. In the blink of an eye we will understand why gamelan had such an influence on Debussy, who encountered this culture at the world expo of 1889. Pianist Marcell Szabó also reveals what a ‘prepared piano’ means and how it sounds.