David Brutti will play

The solo saxophone player and the member of the Ensemble Contemporaneo dell’Umbria, David Brutti, will play my pieces “Adagio assai” for soprano saxophone on the 13th of August and “Wind Up for tenor saxophone” on the 14th of August. The pieces will be performed at the Festival SituAzioni 2012 in Umbria, Italy.

http://www.davidbrutti.com

• Monday  13th of August H 21.00, Perugia, Cortile d’Onore del Palazzo degli Arienti – Piazza Italia 11 — ADAGIO ASSAI

• Tuesday 14th of August H 21.00, Spello (PG) Villa Fidelia – Via Flaminia 72 — FIRST PIECE FOR ALTO SAXOPHONE

First performance

First piece for alto saxophone was premiered by David Brutti on the 22 of July in Sala delle Pietre Hall in Todi, Umbria. The concert was part of the festival “A Todi un’estate fuori dal comune” organized by the Cosmopoli Association.

String quartet no 1

Year of comp: 2009
Instr: f string quartet
Duration:20
Publisher: SMIC
Premiered: 2010-12-11
Place: Stockholm, Capitol
Performers: Stenhammarkvartetten
ID-number GB6626

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PROGRAM NOTES
The starting point for the piece was to provide the four parts of a string quartet with different characters, the akin to the roles in a play. The difference is that these characters, as in an opera, can appear simultaneously. However, there are no leading roles or supporting roles, all characters on equal footing in the drama.

The piece consists of three “acts”. In act one going on an animated conversation, in act two arises as to any kind of exhausted reconciliation with a sad undertone. Act three takes up the tone from the first act, but with some comedic elements interspersed in the dialogue.

The musical result was guided towards becoming a music where the series of tones and the expression became central. Sonorities and playing techniques became less important as techniques of composing.

Listen: String Quartet No. 1
 
……….

Utgångspunkten för stycket var att ge de fyra stämmorna olika karaktärer, att likna vid rollerna i en teaterpjäs. Skillnaden är att dessa karaktärer, precis som i en opera, kan framträda samtidigt. Det finns dock inga huvudroller eller biroller, alla karaktärer får lika stort utrymme i dramat.

Stycket består av tre ”akter”. I akt ett pågår ett animerat samtal, under akt två infinner sig någon form av utmattat försoning med en sorglig underton. Akt tre tar upp tonläget från första akten, men med några komiska inslag insprängda i dialogen.

Det musikaliska resultatet styrdes mot att bli en musik där själva tonmaterialet och uttrycket blev det centrala. Klang och speltekniker blev mindre viktiga för styckets koncipiering.

String quartet no 2

Year of comp: 2011
Instr: f string quartet
Duration: 14
Publisher: SMIC
Premiered: 2012-06-12
Place: Florens, Villa Romana
Performers: Quartetto Maurice
ID-number: GB7874

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PROGRAM NOTES
The second quartet of Odd Sneeggen was written in late 2010 and early 2011, therefore directly after the première of the first string quartet.

What lingered on from the performance of the first quartet was a set of sounds that was interesting to explore; this had nothing to do with the material in the first quartet as such, rather, the new work was influenced by the actual sounds of the instruments.

A starting point in the composing of the second quartet was bypass the use of so many new, or extended, techniques in terms of the tone of the work, with a special effort being made to expose the quality of the “pure tone”. Many of the parameters which decide the form of work are based around the Fibonacci series – these include time signatures, tempo and duration. Numbers are also governing elements of the tone material.