related works
Trail : for 11 instruments, 1993 / Robert Heppener
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
fl ob cl(cl-b) h perc man g hp pf vl cb
Prélude de ballet / Harold C. King
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
2222 4230 timp perc (hp ad lib.) str
Symphonie Nº 1 : Orkest / Henk van der Vliet
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
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Scoring:
2fl ob eh cla fg 3h trp trb tb 3perc timp hrp 2vl vla vc db
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Orchestra
Scoring:
0000 4330 org str
composition
Boog : voor orkest, 1988 / Robert Heppener
Other authors:
Heppener, Robert
(Composer)
Description:
Program note (English): [Première: October 19, 1989 - Concertgebouw, Amsterdam - Riccardo Chailly, conducting] - The subject of Boog (tie), call it a melody, is based on the idea of pulling bow and including the shooting of an arrow. From a unison beginning - twice an interval of seconds (c-d and a-b,) with which the line becomes rigid - it grows to a climax. In reality pulling a bow lasts just a couple of seconds, but here the time has been extended up to 20 minutes. Just like when you look under a microscope and examine a muscle stretching and see that everything is enlarged. The strings tell the tale of stretching the bow; wind instruments give colour, stimulate, and deliver accents. The line splits into two; three lines develops to a polyphonic canon with bass lines under; the tension is intensified to fortissimo (fff)... This ' bulge ' develops into a game of chords, clearer, beams stretching out in a line in the highest regions of the orchestra. This line performs then the ' explosion '. Only
the bang itself never occurs: the tension unloads in silence, into a world of 'slow motion'. This quiet 'explosion' (=) shooting of the arrow is set to a high trumpet. There is reminiscence to the first piano measures of Schumann's song Mondnacht, a song that, also relating to the Eichendorff's text, in a certain manner is musically link to the material of Boog. In the closing stage of the piece I thought of the last lines of the song: Und meine Seele spannte weit ihre Flügel aus, flog durch die stillen Lande, als flöge sie nach Haus. Perhaps it is for listener hardly audible, but for me it is there interwoven for all kinds of reasons. As a highly private association. The flowing line ensures a large unity in material. There is a pattern of fixed pitches, which underneath is warped, while the tempo also shows an arc-like form in which it advances: the quarter note has successively the metronome speed 52,.60,.66,.72,.66,.60 and 52. - ROBERT HEPPENER