Liberal

Kammeroper Nr. 2. Par RIHM WOLFGANG. Chamber opera does not mean “little opera.” On the same scale as chamber music is to the symphony, it is rather the other way of talking onstage. The movable apparatus permits sophisticated voice-leading. A large ensemble demands simple conception to achieve the complexity it perhaps intends; this can be formulated more sharply and nuanced in a chamber ensemble. Therefore it is the subject which this type of presentation must sustain – or, better, provoke. Büchner’s Lenz is a description of the conditions within a process of collapse, moments of destruction already occurred but not yet accepted, evident in the points of contact with the environment. And it was those points of contact which Michael Fröhling attempted to reconstruct onstage. Lenz’s distraught state is always the same; only the proximity of the environment to that distraught state grows and ebbs. The musical consequence An hour of extreme chamber music results from this description: always bound for the main character – actually, not a commentary, but the main character himself as a multilayered level of action. Although Lenz acts on many levels – or tries to or believes he is – he has no room to manoeuvre. That is why he is also tightly interwoven in his sonic surroundings; the voices which only he hears are just as much himself as the two men with whom he foregathers (the liberal pragmatist Oberlin and the alert merchant who always “does the right thing” in every situation) – they evoke responses which he deeply desires. Omnipresent Friederike is just as much his inner world as Nature is – Nature, which he can no longer perceive unless it is personified, enlivened or dead. Therefore, the music’s task is both to motivate the “situation” (atmospherically) and to be the psychological constant (via a network of entangled references per se) in an action as it is played out. The compositional process December 1977 to June 1978 – a period identical to the stepwise understanding of an existence as that of Jakob Lenz. Yet the more the historical figure became precisely attendant in my intellect in terms of data and atmosphere, the more it retreated in favour of a cipher of disturbance as I began to understand Lenz. Thence the explanation for the failure of the attempts to approach him – including my attempt to interpret him via musical representation – because, essentially, Lenz himself is the failure. Only the naked stages of that failure remain portrayable, i.e. including the failure of those who wish to “help” Lenz, for example, while Lenz himself is already trapped inextricably in a state of complete destruction. I tried to compose my way into that situation as far as possible; the insistence of several rhythmic and harmonic configurations is the palpable expression of the main character’s ever-recurring rigidity. One sound pervades the entire work. The musical stage For me, this is a place where very magical and very human things take place. In Jakob Lenz, the human aspects often switch to magical ones, since the realism of a self-suasive, unhinged soul takes on surreal traits – or we simply cannot understand that otherwise except as not being real. A character like Jakob Lenz on the stage is complex due to the fact alone that it harbours many stages within itself, and music must represent those constantly present stages. I have tried to do so in the most direct way – by not cleanly separating the musical layers, but keeping them constantly in evidence until they must break forth, each in accord with its own dramaturgy. In an overview, the large form takes on aspects of a rondo, performed in overlapping layers – a type of rondo relief, since perspectives of psychological proximity and distance are indeed formulated musically as atmospheric relations. Above all: the thread on which Jakob Lenz hangs is the current onto the listeners’ hearts. Wolfgang Rihm (January 1979)/ Répertoire / Chant et Piano

When I was approached to compose a work for brassband and church organ I already envisioned the concept I would use. It would indeed literally become a work for brassband and organ. Without the traditional solos the organ would form an addition to the brassband orchestration as would the brassband provide an extra register for the organ. In short a homogeneous entity. The most important reason for doing this is quite simple. Since this work can only be performed in a church and because of the specific acoustics of the church the brassband would sound in al its tone colour like an organ. By using certain registers of the organ and combining these with the brassband a wonderfulsound palette can be created. The use of complementary or contrasting tone quality is also possible. The primary theme of this composition is based on these three methods of ?colouring?. As far as structure is concerned this work consists of two parts. slow ? fast. It is built on a number of motifs in which some behave like a consecutive canon. In the fast movement the primary motif develops into a fugue-like section. The canon and fugato are techniques frequently used in classical and contemporary organ literature. The liberal use of structure and motif has lead to the title. ?Fantasy for Brassband and Organ?.

Commissioned by Earl Rivers and the CCM Chamber Choir with a text chosen to celebrate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. Composer DiOrio has chosen Bass Clarinet Violin and Vibraphone toaccompany while using a liberal dose of tenor solo alternating with the chorus to mirror the alternating representation of the original text. The chorus takes on many emotional frames depicting the colours and shapesinherent in each line of the poetry. This music is “high” but never “serious” just like Shakespeare himself.

Barabbas Variations-The subtitle provides a clue that this work has some relationship to Sallinen's chamber cantata Barabbas Dialogues; however that work was completed somewhat later than this one.Barabbas Variations is also shot through with liberal references to the tango and the piece is one of the longest works in the literature to feature the Accordion this side of Astor Piazzolla; virtuoso Accordion players should take note.

This contemporary-sounding work makes a fine concert opener or festival selection! Your band will demonstrate a wide variety of styles in less than three minutes. There is plenty of enjoyable 'flight time' for the upper woodwinds exciting passages for the brass and a fetching liberally-cued brass ensemble section.

Like many composers who found themselves in exile during the war years Castelnuovo-Tedesco composed in a very neoclassical and neoromantic style reviving more traditional or antiquated ideas of melody tonality and texture. Hiscollection of Shakespeare Songs feature settings of verse from across the full range of the Bard's plays and have proved to be great critical successes still widely performed today. Suitable to be adapted by most voices.the songs are interwoven with complex and thrilling Piano accompaniments that bring colour and energy to the often liberally edited texts.Book two contains three songs adapted from As You Like It

Score of Rolf Wallin's Stonewave for solo Percussion. Composer's Notes:The last few years I have become increasingly involved in some peculiar mathematical formulas called 'fractals'. These formulas used inthe fast growing field of 'Chaos theory' are relatively simple but they generate fascinating and surprisingly 'organic' patterns when shown graphically on a computer screen or played as music. One should think that such amathematical approach would lead to sterile and 'theoretical' music. The sound world of 'Stonewave' however is not one you would associate with math books. The steady insistent pulse and the use of sequences put squarely upagainst each other or divided by long rests suggest an invisible ritual. A ritual for what? Well then let it be a ritual for the exorcism of some 'evil spirits' which now ride our part of the world under the name ofLiberalism making people the servants of the Market Forces instead of vice versa.'Stonewave' is therefore an incantation as it seems that only divine forces can save European culture from a political system that proclaimsthe Jungle Law as the guiding principle in social and cultural life. Rolf Wallin