composer
General:
Luc Brewaeys was born on August 25, in 1959 in Mortsel (Belgium) and passed away on December 18, in 2015.
Education: He studied composition with André Laporte in Brussels (Belgium), ...
related works
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra with electronics
Wesendonk Lieder : 1857; bew. 2006 / bew. Geert van Keulen, Richard Wagner
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Aum : for voices and large ensemble / Petra Strahovnik
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Instruments:
2sopr sopr-m ten bar 2fl-a cl sax-b sax-a tpt h 2trb tb g-e g-b pf perc
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Instruments:
sopr-m cemb 7vl 2vla 2vc cb
composition
Schumann’s Ghosts : for soprano ad lib. and ensemble / Luc Brewaeys
Description:
This small piece was commissioned by the Ictus Ensemble and composed in 1999. It was (the first) part of a cycle of "arrangements/revisits" of the song cycle op. 99 by Robert Schumann, realized by 7 composers, among them Jonathan Harvey. The idea was to keep untouched the vocal line composed by Schumann, while everything alse was totally free to each composer's discretion. I received song n° 1 "Lied des Schmiedes" (Song of the smith), which is very staightforward and harmonically very simple. I just kept the basic harmony and filled it with different moods, at places with many notes. I took a lot of fun realizing this, quoted Mahler (2nd Symphony) and Janacek (Glagolithic Mass) and made a grotesque kind of Foxtrot in the third verse. At the end a cuckoo sings "goodbye", while repeating sharpening by a quarter tone each time and the ensemble desintegrates before playing the conclusive bars which are a perfect mirror of the first two. I intentionally previewed two versions, with or without the voice. The first performance took place in december '99 in Brussels by Mitsuko Shirai with the Ictus Ensemble under George-Elie Octors.