related works
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring:
7zang perc / GK
Wild Heart : for ensemble with bassoon / Chiel Meijering
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
2fl bsn pf vl
The Book of Kwun Tong : for clarinet, violin, cello and piano / Yip Ho Kwen Austin
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
cl vn vc pf
Chickentalk : for panpipes, marimba, guitar and cello / Chiel Meijering
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
panfl mar g vc
composition
Habibi cum figuris : Rondo for ensemble / Kees Arntzen
Other authors:
Arntzen, Kees
(Composer)
Description:
'Habibi cum figuris' is an ensemble arrangement of the previously written piece for harpsichord. A number of compositional peculiarities can be found in this piece. Firstly, the composition is constructed aroud an oriental sounding 'gipsy' scale which meanders through the piece from start to finish without omitting a single note, like a a drawing in a single uninterrupted line.
This comparison holds for the harpsichord piece, but in the ensemble version an occasional octave-leap is smuggled in.
Secondly, the composition makes liberal use of so called 'soggetti cavati' or musical cryptograms, in which a sequence of notes can refer to a text outside of the music by some logical relationship, usually between note names and letters. The first composer who used such a sogetto cavato was the Burgundian Josquin Des Pres, who cunningly succeeded in smuggling the name of his patron Count Ercole de Ferrara into his church mass 'Hercules Dux Ferrariae' – a prescient example of flattery. Des Pres was imitated by many composers who hid their own names or those of loved ones in their compositions. Well known examples are the B-A-C-H motif in the German tone system and Robert Schumann's ABEGG-variations (opus 1). Also Johannes Brahms, Alban Berg and Dmitri Shostakovich loved playing the game of hide and seek with names.
Kees Arntzen, December 2019