wasbe-ed

#202– June 05, 2023 Credit: Ciril Jazbec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2dCwa14NZk Gouache, by Slovenian composer Nina Šenk is our Composition of the Week. Gouache is the French term to call a water-medium paint, similar to watercolor, but modified to make it opaque. Gouache was finished in 2018, premiered on November 15 of the same year by the Slowind Wind Quintet and Klangforum Wien, during the Slowind Festival in Ljubljana, which is the main Slovene‘s scene for modern and contemporary music. Goauche is structured in a single movement, of about 15 minutes of duration, and it is scored for: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, [...]

#201– May 29, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXk24Yb5uKQ Concierto para violín y 18 instrumentos, by Argentinian composer, conductor and cellist José María Castro is our Composition of the Week. The concerto was written in 1953 and commissioned by the “Asociación Amigos de la Música” from Buenos Aires. It was premiered by the association’s orchestra on July 6, 1954, with Ljerko Spiller as soloist and Jean Martinon conducting. Castro writes in a neoclassical style, and composes the concerto in three movements, using the current Fast-Slow-Fast structure. The piece has a duration of 23 minutes, and it is scored with the following instrumentation: Solo Violin.2.2.2.2/2.2.0.0.Cello (3). [...]

#200– May 22, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvCfjTBUOZA Initiale, by French composer, conductor and teacher Pierre Boulez is our Composition of the Week. Initiale is a short, only 5 minutes, rarely performed piece by Pierre Boulez that he composed for the Houston Symphony Orchestra, in 1987. The instruments, two trombones, two horns and two trumpets, are symmetrically distributed around the tuba, allowing for echo and spatialization effects that the composer of “Répons” likes to consider. Its first performance took place in Houston, USA, on November 11, 1987. A new version of the work followed in 2010. Initiale for brass and percussion is in principle [...]

#199– May 15, 2023 Credit: Marcelo Macaue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcHElBcsG74&t=725s Multiverse – Another Rite of Spring, by Brazilian-American composer, pianist, vocalist, and educator Clarice Assad is our Composition of the Week. Multiverse was commissioned by the University of Maryland Wind Ensemble and conductor Michael Votta, who premiered the piece on February 17, 2023, at the CBDNA National Conference in Athens, Georgia. “In 2019, I received an email from conductor Michael Votta with an intriguing vision for a commission: How would you like to write a response to Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” experienced through the eyes of the sacrificial maiden? [...]

#198– May 08, 2023 Credit: Ellen Lande Gossner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pykE7Se8Ntc Waves II-b, by Norwegian composer and performing artist Maja Ratkje is our Composition of the Week. Waves II-b is based upon earlier versions, Waves I and Waves II, both first performed by the Dutch ensemble “de Ereprijs” in 1997 and 1998. Waves II-b was premiered at the Oslo Chamber Music Festival in 1998 by the Oslo Sinfonietta, with Christian Eggen conducting. “Waves of sound, water or light behave similarly. Waves move through a substance with a certain frequency or energy. Waves interfere with each other, and new structures are shown. [...]