related works
Cors et cordes : pour cor de basset et orchestre de chambre, 1978 / Geert van Keulen
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Clarinet and large ensemble
Scoring:
0200 2000 cemb 12vl 4vla 4vc 2cb bh-solo
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Wind ensemble (13 or more players)
Scoring:
4121 2sax 2211 8perc
Orange dog : for ensemble (big band), 1999 / David Dramm
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Wind ensemble (13 or more players)
Scoring:
sax-a(sax-s) sax-t sax-b 0330 perc pf cb
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Wind ensemble (13 or more players)
Scoring:
2232 2200 timp perc pf
composition
Pictures at an exhibition / Modest Mussorgsky, orchestration for large wind ensemble by Geert van Keulen, orch. 1992
Other authors:
Musorgskij, Modest
(Composer)
Keulen, Geert van
(Orchestrator)
Contains:
Promenade
The hut on hen's legs (Baba-Yaga)
The Bogatyr gate (at Kiev, the ancient capital)
Gnomus-Promenade
Il vecchio castello-Promenade
Tuileries
Bydlo-Promenade
Ballet des poussins dans leurs coques
Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuijle-Promenade
Limoges (Le marché)
Catacombae (sepulcrum romanum)-Con mortuis in lingua morta
Description:
Program note (English): [Première: May 10, 1992 - Paradiso, Amsterdam - Wind Ensemble of the Netherlands, Eri Klas, conducting) - I explicitly have not tried to make a historical instrumentation nor did I wish to make a portrait of Moussorgsky. I have attempted to give my vision of his music. I do not consider my work as an arrangement, which I believe is simply adding notes. I remain entirely true to the ' text ', but in that framework there is much to be interpreted. Just in the selection instruments alone can you really give your vision of the piece. Ravel has made in some movements additional measures and beyond his own fault used many incorrect notes. He had a sober score by Rimsky-Korsakov. (The original handwritten score was in Ravel's time not yet available).
The greatest liberty I allowed myself, is at the end, where I, when the tubular bells sound, and chords partially flow through each other. Because, then just as with church bells the sounds chime through, it becomes much more dissonant. That is therefore real interpretation. I actually had the piano in mind, where I could clearly let myself be inspired by Ashkenazy's performance. I do not link, as Ravel does, psychological figures to any instrument.
I am searching more for a special colour which coincides with the character of the music, for example an extremely high register for bassoon and for alto flute a low register. I also use instruments with the certainty they where unknown to Moussorgsky, for example the double bass clarinet. I have consciously not made an analysis of Moussorgsky's instrumentation style. It my vision and I use my typical combinations of instruments; my vision with emphasis on the extreme, the frenzied.
Many low wind instruments, because the score allows this. The introducing of colourful nuances in the lower register is for these pieces especially important to allow the bass to sound transparent, so that specific notes are easily perceived. Instrumentation is not simply dressing up. It is offering a vision or an interpretation. I consciously have not made a historical reconstruction. I want that which I find important emphasised in the harmonies, in the voicing, accents and rhythms. - GEERT VAN KEULEN