related works
Sharp movement (Tambourin) : for organ / Peter Stewart Adriaansz
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Organ
Scoring:
org
Keats I : for high voice and chamber orchestra, 1997 / on words by John Keats, Maarten Altena
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Scoring:
high 2222 2220 2perc pf vl 2vla 2cb
Der tolle Mensch : stem en ensemble, 2003 / Maarten Altena
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Scoring:
ten fl ob ob(eh) 2cl 2fg 2h trp trb hp 2vl vla vc
composition
Chant Ascendant : for soprano (or two alternating sopranos) and ensemble / Peter Adriaansz; text by Jacques Prévert
Other authors:
Prevert, Jacques
(Text writer/Librettist)
Adriaansz, Peter
(Composer)
Description:
Program note (English): 'Chant ascendant' is the fourth and most virtuoso part of the cycle 'Chants monotones' and deals, as the title infers, with ascension. Its text is a free adaptation of Jacques Préverts 'Cortège' , in which a basically nonsensical and enumerative text is gradually unravelled, set to rhyme, forgotten and dissected until the only adjective (formerly disguised as noun) remains at the ending of the piece. The dramatics of the 'Chant ascendant' are entirely determined by the speed and manner of text-recitation. Technically it is an exercise in 5-part counterpoint. The cycle as a whole deals with various aspects of minimal change explored in a maximal manner. Main inspiration lies in the quasi-non-eventfulness of recitative, the ritual of repetition in the dramatics of textual enumeration and the desire to say the maximum with a minimum of material. 'The title Monotone' does not betray a desire to make boring music but, rather, to investigate the possibilities of static surfaces. -
PETER ADRIAANSZ