Musical fireworks

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Musical fireworks (sometimes imprecise: sound fireworks ) is pyrotechnic fireworks that are choreographed to one or more pieces of music .

In particular, attempts are made to incorporate the lighting effects of the fireworks, rather than the noise effects, into the beat and the special highlights of the respective piece of music (synchronized fireworks).

development

The development in Europe began with fireworks accompanying music from the Baroque period , such as Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks HWV 351. However, it is unknown to what extent the fireworks actually fired in sync with the music or to what extent this could be achieved due to the technical possibilities.

Technical process

The technical prerequisites for musical fireworks are the pyrotechnic sentences and a music source (usually a powerful music system, rarely live music). The technique and "art" of the pyrotechnician is not to shoot the fireworks in a certain order and rhythm to the music, but to bring the most diverse light effects in time and harmoniously in coordination with the music (cycle) and event. Depending on the type of event (e.g. sporting event, fair , celebratory event, wedding, etc.) it may be necessary to coordinate a wide variety of effects on the same piece of music in order to meet the corresponding expectations of the visitors.

The pyrotechnician has to do this

  • the sequence of shots,
  • the flight duration of the effect and
  • the development of the effect or the individual effects after ignition

Know in advance and coordinate with the beat of the music or the respective highlights of the piece of music. A computer can support this (see: blasting machines ). Various influences (e.g. weather conditions) can lead to slight temporal changes in the rise time of the pyrotechnic effect and the development of the effect after ignition, which the pyrotechnician must incorporate into his planning so that the effects and sequences are synchronized with the Stay in rhythm with the music.

Musical fireworks can be combined with various forms of fireworks, such as: B. stage fireworks, baroque fireworks, large fireworks, wedding fireworks, daytime fireworks etc.

Synchronization is much more difficult with live music and is considered a particular artistic challenge. One of the most recent performances is the rocket symphony by Orlando Gough, which opened the year Linz09 as the Capital of Culture : the production was not only instrumental, but also featured a large choir of 300 singers. With Ars Electronica there is also a long tradition of combining pyrotechnics and new media in Linz .

Well-known events

Photo from the 2007 International Fireworks Competition

Demarcation

Musical fireworks are different from fireworks music . In fireworks music, a composer tries to reproduce pyrotechnic effects, in particular light effects (light explosion, shapes, colors ) and noise effects (such as bang or whistling ) musically and / or in the sound. B. smoke or the artificial fog . Fireworks music can also be suitable for musical fireworks.

Sound fireworks can describe both musical fireworks with pyrotechnic effects and “fireworks of sounds” (often referred to as such in the context of music criticism).

Music with fireworks (music-accompanying fireworks) is a more or less combined, but mostly less coordinated background music to a fireworks display. The fireworks have a primary function, while the music or sound is subordinate. With musical fireworks this is exactly the opposite.

annotation

  1. The term sound fireworks for pyrotechnic musical fireworks is used several times in Austria .