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Marienbad

(2020-21, rev. 2022)

for sextet

Program notes

This piece is my first attempt to solve the challenge of setting ‘fixed’ art – such as a painting or photography – to music, an issue that had preoccupied and baffled me for a long time, due to the fundamental difference in nature between both domains – an instant-based against a time-unfolding art form. I developed a strategy to reconcile these ideas, aiming to emulate the experience of contemplating an artwork for a period of time as a musical structure based on the different stages of that process, as far as one can generalise such an experience. The structure is characterised by a freely alternating contemplation of the whole object with focus on specific elements within the artwork, and drawing connections between them based on insights gained during earlier viewing stages.

Inspired by a frame of Alain Resnais’ surrealist masterwork L’Année dernière à Marienbad (1961) the structure of the piece is developed around six distinct solos, one for each instrument of the ensemble, presented as part of a trio alongside their ‘shadow’ – a distorted reflection of the contents of each solo. As each of the solos/trios are introduced, new networks of ideas and connections emerge in the ensemble, and as this activity unfolds and expands, an insistent collective gesture keeps framing all these different musical thoughts back into the same canvas they originated from.

Winner of the Festival Resis 2022 International Call for Scores, workshopped by Arxis Ensemble conducted by Beat Furrer.

Duration: c. 7'

Instrumentation

Flute

Clarinet in B-flat

Percussion

        Marimba
        Suspended cymbal

        Tam-tam

        Stone (resonant, bell-like)

        Metal block (high, resonant)

        2 tom-toms (large and small)

        Bass drum

Piano

Violin

Violoncello

Performances

27.05.2022 – Festival Resis (A Coruña, ES)

        Performers: Arxis Ensemble conducted by Beat Furrer

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© 2023 José del Avellanal Carreño

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