Hello everyone, dear colleagues, at the address http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1iED44JCbI&feature=plcp
i have published the first (and for now only, eheh) performance of my first real work, after six years of stylistic exercises!
The performance is from May 2011 at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
For the moment, I am only attaching the audio link (for which you will have to forgive me the acceptable but not excellent quality). As for the score, alas, only the paper version exists, which I am willing to scan and send to anyone who has the desire to look at it.
Feel free to strike with any criticism and happy listening!
I started from something very simple, namely a twelve-tone series upon which the entire piece is obviously based; at the beginning, the series is presented by the clarinet with a viola background, immediately after which the viola repeats it, transposing it a third lower.
As the piece progresses and swells, the series is treated with the classic contrapuntal tools of inversion and retrograde, breaking the series between notes of the clarinet and notes or dyads of the viola.
The form of the piece can be felt immediately, I would say; perhaps the issue of the swelling and subsiding of the sound texture is a bit overused, but I think I sacrificed originality for expository clarity.
I am certainly not a lover of dodecaphony, and I tried to give the whole as much cantability as possible.
True, they are two very difficult instruments, and I do not hide that I had to return several times to all those trills and tremolos to verify that they were feasible.
I don't connect with the genre, but I must say it delivers ... regardless of the technicalities. I would never have thought it was a dodecaphonic composition, which already on paper inhibits me...
M
Marzapane
Member
Reply 7 by Marzapane
Posts
210
Too bad about the audio hiss that "ruins" the most "silent" moments,..I understood that I still had to face the fugue. I must say it left me satisfied
... and the VII dissonances are finished as much as possible!!
I imagine it is a liberating vent, so I understand.
The problem is that extreme dissonance is no longer so current... this does not prevent you from proposing pieces like this, especially because you manage it as a sort of "timbral research" and consequently the research itself is not experienced during listening as a continuous self-annihilation. In short, it is at the service (also) of the ear.
Furthermore, the use of two melodic instruments on one hand makes the texture lighter, but on the other hand makes the search for the right balance more complex, something that you managed well. So, well done and congratulations.
I imagine it is a liberating vent, so I understand
Eheh, but it wasn't quite like that! I remember that at the beginning I was completely disoriented by the amount of material I could draw from. Ultimately, I am fond of all those rules—nerve-wracking but in a certain sense reassuring—that I followed for years. Don't play in the wings! Avoid excessive leaps! and so on... but ultimately I think we all love these rules, because they trace a furrow beyond which we know we cannot move. Therefore, the "absence" of prescriptive rules, at least on the ground zero of the matter, i.e., in front of the blank sheet, was even more constraining, paradoxically, than all those rules I had followed until then!
Valchiria wrote:
The problem is that extreme dissonance is no longer so current... this does not prevent you from proposing pieces like this, especially because you manage it as a sort of "timbral research" and consequently the research itself is not experienced during listening as a continuous self-annihilation. In short, it is at the service (also) of the ear.
You hit the nail on the head; timbral research is at the base of this small work, in addition to the pure technique of developing a dodecaphonic series. I chose this instrumentation precisely because they have a perfect fusion in certain registers, while managing to be poles apart in others.
Valchiria wrote:
Furthermore, the use of two melodic instruments on one hand makes the texture lighter, but on the other hand makes the search for the right balance more complex, something you managed well. So, well done and congratulations.
Thank you! I am happy with all these messages!
And is there anyone who didn't like the piece or has something that doesn't convince them?
O
Oracolo
Member
Reply 13 by Oracolo
Posts
317
Thank you for the clarifications.
suonolatromba wrote:
And is there anyone who didn't like the piece or has something that doesn't convince them?
To be convincing is to be convincing. Personally, I think you pushed it quite a bit, but that's understandable; winter is long and one wishes for it to end quickly.
This doesn't mean that the piece has technical problems or anything else; it's a matter of taste, which I think is good to separate when giving opinions on a piece.
I listened to it again with headphones to get the best audio output.
General judgment, positive. It is pleasant, with interesting moments. But you know what? The final impression it gives is that of an interlude. The thematic elements, which are present, especially descending semitones and minor thirds, come out of the shadows, but perhaps, since they are intriguing and absolutely tonal (this is dodecaphony just to say), you could have emphasized them more. Similarly, I don't find any preponderant rhythmic elements; the "material" remained a bit amorphous from that point of view, but maybe that was your goal. This led to a nice consequence if you wanted an interlude or a prelude, exactly, but in the end, the full 3 minutes of the piece remain a bit nebulous (you wanted criticism, so here it is).
Then... low textures, piano dynamics; high textures, strong dynamics; that beautiful fleshy sound of the clarinet—I would have liked to hear it even louder. You surely know it, it's one of the most famous and performed contemporary pieces... at 7:49 there is Abîme des Oiseaux, the clarinet solo. Despite being "atonal," it is very melodic, singable, and one of the wonderful things is that the sound of the clarinet manages not to be annoying or monotonous. I put this link because it has the score, so you can see the incredible dynamic variety and hear even the sonic and timbral effects that a crescendo has on the clarinet. It audibly changes the pitch of the notes! The crescendos with long notes are insane; just listen to how one instrument alone creates the superposition of planes (which is actually the reinforcement of some harmonics over others). At 16:10 you have an interlude that sounds like a Klezmer piece—that is, maybe I'm wrong, but if you use a violin and a clarinet, you can't help but think of Klezmer eheheh, and Messiaen did it as a non-Jew... obviously everyone chooses their own points of reference, but listen to how very marked rhythmic elements increase the harmonic texture in themselves, even though we are in a trio without piano (so a situation similar to yours). Actually, I can't think of any duets to propose to you as an example...
You certainly aimed for the timbral effect and this does you credit because I consider it a current necessity. It actually lacks a bit of verve, but you surely intended it that way. For your first work, you seem to be truly on the right track.
Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing one of your pieces
L
Ludovica
Member
Reply 16 by Ludovica
Posts
298
Did what you had in mind actually come out, or did you expect better/worse?
How do you rate the performers? Were you satisfied with their interpretation? Did you participate in the rehearsals... perhaps by giving some directions?
Thank you, thank you everyone! Also for the notes you are giving me!
Regarding the length....
Just imagine, I thought it was short! But I had a deadline to meet... about 3 minutes, sad piece, maximum instrumentation for a trio... and this came out!
I agree that a basic rhythmic element is missing or that the rhythmic research is limited. But it was almost intentional, in the sense that I was aiming more for timbral research, for the blend of the two timbres... and as Thallo rightly points out, at the melodic vein. Yes, it is dodecaphonic in a manner of speaking indeed; the series is C-B-Ab-A-Bb-G-F#-E-Eb-D-F-Db which is divided three by three, and perhaps in each of these divisions there is something tonal... let's say a gentrified dodecaphonic series!
Among other things, I realized that when the series is good... half the work is done. This one, among other things, had a pivot with the retrograde, which in certain cases has helped me a lot!
Did what you had in mind actually come out, or did you expect better/worse?
How do you rate the performers? Were you satisfied with their interpretation? Did you participate in the rehearsals... perhaps by giving some directions?
More or less I was satisfied! There were few rehearsals and I only managed to attend three of them.
As for the performers... I liked the clarinetist very much; in my opinion, he understood everything there was to understand.
The violist, as much as she is very talented and refined, left me perplexed... a bit out of tune overall and a few missed notes eheheh, but I don't think anyone in the hall noticed that!
The only remark I made to them: I would have played everything much louder during the climax moments; I marked the last outburst of clarinet and viola with fff... but it's perfectly fine as it is. And then hearing one of your pieces performed at the Comunale di Bologna... well, it was a wonderful thing!
Meanwhile, I say one thing to the person who wrote this.
Judging a piece that is unknown and, moreover, written in a style that has no points of reference is a wonderful exercise in "criticism," of ear, and of taste.
The fact that this discussion was "successful," in my opinion, is a symptom that there is a great atmosphere in this forum
And yes indeed! The atmosphere is great... and besides, it seems to me that more or less everyone has some authority in what they say, not like in other places where things are said just to see secretly what the effect will be...
