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Vier Darmstädter Aphorismen (1986-89) |
solo flute-player - 13'
These four pieces for solo flute-player are all connected with the Darmstadt Ferienkurse für neue Musik by circumstance or design. The first, Venezia and third ARTAUD, were written during the courses in 1986 and 1988 respectively, while the second is an excerpted fragment from the guitar concerto intended for performance during the 1990 courses. The final piece Gelb:Violett was specifically written to utilise the one remaining standard flute, the alto flute and bring the group to a close. The pieces are therefore not a sequence, they are only connected by reasons of brevity, association with Darmstadt and my intention that they provide Laura Chislett, whose playing prompted both the first piece and the idea of assembling the group, with a vehicle for her virtuoso musicality. There is no underpinning structural logic beyond that retrospectively derived when planning Gelb:Violett; accordingly they can be performed together, in any preferred order, either all four or any subgroup - or singly.
Venezia (1986)
- flute, duration: 2 minutes
The incentive to write this piece came from two chance meetings; on the steps of La Fenice in Venice, the other in Darmstadt.
Piccolo fragment from Dark Neumes (1988)
- piccolo, duration: 1 minute, 40 seconds
The original site of this brief lament is between the two main structural blocks, sens and tremblant of my guitar concerto, Dark Neumes. Although entirely derived from, and expressive of, the material of this latter - in the form of a "sens tremblant" between lyricism and anxiety - the perceived self-containedness of this little utterance would perhaps justify its extraction.
ARTAUD (1988)
- bass flute, duration: 3 minutes, 20 seconds
Pierre-Yves Artaud is the single most significant flute player in recent musical history; my own affection for him is expressed - and embodied - herein.
Gelb:Violett (1989)
- alto flute, duration: 6 minutes
"Yellow:violet = bright knowledge: dark, emotional piety" - Johannes Itten, The Elements of Colour; a "sens tremblant".
© Chris Dench