FIVE PIECES

2009

15 min.

Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Cello

I. Ex Tempore

II. Fugue

III. Colored Line

IV. Mirror

V. Concerto

premier: Treffpunkt Neue Musik: ORF OÖ Radio Station, 12.4.2010

Program Notes: Each of the Five Pieces attmepts to capture an abstract idea, just like a good cartoon. Die composition draws mainly from a jazz influenced language as well as from indian rhythm concepts (in Concerto). Starting point fort his piece was a study I did during my time at New England Conservatory. In the end I liked the instrumentation I had thought of so much, that I decided to add four more movements around it to complete a suite. The order of the pieces is left to the performers.

Ex Tempore is an instrumentation of a spontaneous improvisation on the piano. It breathes in short thoughtlike phrases which should sound as if played by only one person.

In Fugue I challenged myself to create a purely counterpunctual piece out of a specific harmonic scheme.

Colored Line is an hommage to Schönbergs Five Pieces for Orchestra (op.11/3). It therefore should be placed as the middle movement.

In Mirror the music will start running backwards after the climax, sort of like a video tape on rewind.

Concerto condenses the large classical format of the instrumental solo concerto into a miniature.