Vignettes Balletiques
wind quintet commissioned by Borealis Wind Quintet 1. March in the Style of a Tarantella 2. The Waltz of Capricious Children 3. A Light Pavane for Two Dreaming Lovers 4. The Nightclub: Mambo Dancers Burst onto the Scene (dur. 14 minutes) World Premiere: May 14, 2011
Borealis Wind Quintet Raritan River Music Festival - Stewartsville, NJ |
As it's name suggests, Vignettes Balletiques is a collection of varied balletic musical portraits. It was inspired by and crafted for the unique and refined musical personality of the Borealis Wind Quintet. Since each movement, or more appropriately scene, can be visualized in a myriad of different ways, the work, as a whole, possesses no unifying programmatic theme. Rather than being literal representations, the chosen dance forms (march/tarantella, waltz, pavane and mambo) are points of departure, more or less, and given relatively free treatment throughout the composition. Its one encompassing influence is that of French woodwind music, namely Françaix and Ibert whose work I've always greatly admired. Overall, my fundamental intention was to create a work that would be at once familiar and fresh to the audience, while simultaneously being both enjoyable and challenging for the musicians.
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