related works
Mozart’s Ghosts : for 5 instrumentalists / Luc Brewaeys
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
cl h vla vc cemb(pf)
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Scoring:
trio: sopr vla bando ensemble: 1121 1110 perc pf 2vl vc cb
High octane : for voice and ensemble (both amplified), 1997 / on words by the composer, David Dramm
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Scoring:
voice 1121 1111 perc g-b hp pf(synth) 2vl vla vc cb
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Scoring:
sopr 1121 1110 perc hp pf 2vl vla vc cb
composition
Schumann’s Ghosts : for soprano ad lib. and ensemble / Luc Brewaeys
Other authors:
Brewaeys, Luc
(Composer)
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.