Score
YouTube Video of Live Performance by the Wind Ensemble of the Netherlands and me & Dagmar Uythethofken on the piano
Summary:
Entry in the JongNBE "On the way to the New Year's Concert" composition competition 2007 for people under 18. This year's theme was "Night", and as such I chose the subject "Aurora Australis", better known as the Southern Lights. The fast outer sections represent the wonder of the continuous collision of particles in the Earth's athmosphere, the slow mid-section represents the wonderment it creates.
It's scored for flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoon, trumpet in Bb, horn in F, tenor trombone, percussion (susp. cymbal + xylophone), four-hand piano, double bass & tape.
The overall style can be summarized as impressionistic minalism gone horribly hyperactive. I regarded the whole ensemble as an "aura apparatus" in the fast outer sections.
It came to win a place in the final round.
Techniques used:- Polyrhythms
- Ostinati
- Polychords
- Combined use of samples and live ensemble
- "Prepared" piano
- Instrumentists have to hum and speak
- Harmonic parallelisms
Duration of conception:
About three whole days to think about structure, improvising on the piano and making the whole score on Sibelius. Lay-out improvements and dynamic markings took about a week
Structure:
intro - A - B - A' - outtro
Obstacles when composing:
confining my ideas and keeping the structure
