Following my previous post, by the time I saw that video on a Spanish news TV channel, I was already about one third through a piece for orchestra, which I had already called "Refugee". I started it about a month and a half ago - and I finished it last night - after coming back from Carlisle; although I was feeling really, really not well. It is a bit over 10 minutes long. 11 minutes or so.
I'd subjectively say that I worked pretty fast, especially considering that in the meantime I happened to play among other things, Mahler 6, Verdi's Requiem, the John Williams concert, etc.
Plus I also spend a lot of time lately learning ... something else.
I am still not 100% sure about a few things. For example I haven't totally decided yet whether to add horns to a passage or not. Whether to leave the harp glissando in or not. Whether to add a solo double bass to a bass clarinet passage or not, etc But I'll see; for now I think this is the best choice.
If I listened to it, I'd probably focus on 3 things:
- what I call the "clouds of sound" - for example the harmonics that start the piece (and conclude it, but in a very different context)
- the "activity" - the faster moving lines, often in imitation; which turn into "clouds of sound" themselves sometimes
- the second inversion A major chord - that appears at first "hidden", "encrypted", but becomes more prominent towards the end. This chord symbolizes the utopian dream, hope, that keeps the refugee going, through a terrible plight. The "utopian chord"...
I think about this piece as a journey. But maybe not so much a physical journey as a psychological journey. From episode to episode - "held together" by common "little motives" or "cells". As soon as it starts to settle somewhere, it transforms into something else.
The end is at least in part a utopian resolution. And nostalgia. The English Horn which should prevail over the other winds; and especially the soft second inversion A major chord mentioned above, in the divided cellos and basses, which appears under the "cloud of sounds" - the high harmonics.
The xylophone and celesta (at times plus harp) form a "special group" quite prominent in a few episodes. Ideally they would be placed close to each other, and not too far back.
Also I am always so affected by the music that surrounds me... The way I subjectively justify it is that I try to absorb everything - I let it "ferment" - and what comes out, hopefully is transformed, metamorphosed. The Ligeti, hopefully is no longer Ligeti, the Saariaho no longer Saariaho, the Mahler no longer Mahler, etc I cannibalize them, ha! Hopefully they become bits of "me"!
And I always have my "cryptic" allusions to other things. I can't help it. But the truth is when I allude to something, I don't really allude to the original. Rather I allude to a felling, a memory, an impression that remained with me. There are 2 such "allusions" to Mahler 6, for example: the harp in the low register (because the low harp in Mahler 6 gives me the shivers, in those passages with the tremolo cellos, for example; God!!) - and the "funeral" brass, just before the "resolution", at the end. There is nothing quite as "funeral" and as "dark", as a passage for low brass can be!
The orchestra is unfortunately bigger than I originally planned: 3 flutes (3rd doubles piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubles English Horn), 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, percussion ( 3 players: xylophone - with quite a prominent part - wood block, snare drum, bells, ratchet, triangle, whip, bass drum, tamtam), timpani, celesta, harp and strings.
Here is a pretty good demo:
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