Audio Sample
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Performance by Libra Ensemble from the CD Redror |
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CD
Redror / music of Michael Whiticker, performed by Libra Contemporary Ensemble.
Version: This product features the Octets: Flute, percussion, mandolin, guitar, harp, violin, viola, double bass version of this work
Library shelf no. CD 332 [Available for loan]
Score
Ad Parnassum : version 3, for solo flute / Michael Whiticker.
Library shelf no. Q 788.32/WHI 1 [Available for loan]
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Work Overview
Stored amongst the recesses of a composer's mind can generally be found the plans for a large number of works. Although knowing that they will not all be brought to fruition, the composer is usually content with the knowledge that they will lie dormant, waiting to be brought out, dusted off when needed and slotted into some willing agenda.
The original idea for a piece for flute soloist and chamber ensemble, Ad Parnassum can be traced directly to an earlier work, Ad Marginem written in 1986. The short third movement of that piece, although successful for me in the context of a large four movement work, had always seemed a little aenemic, so I was pleased when the opportunity arose to reorchestrate it and develop it into a completely new and much larger work for the Elision ensemble.
Even under the influence of two very different constraints - one
being a complete rethinking of the original material to suit
Elision's unusual ensemble and the new shape I was casting it in,
as it was now to become a complete work in its own right, and the
second being my 1991 composing temperament which was vastly
different to that of 1986 - Ad Parnassum is still in
many ways a sister piece to the earlier concerto.
Both works take their titles from paintings by Paul Klee, and in
the case of Ad Marginem this is not a surprise given the
musical references I found in his marine landscape. Klee was an
amateur musician of some note and it has been suggested that in
Ad Parnassum he was making a reference to the 1723
treatise on music theory and counterpoint of Johann Joseph Fux,
Gradus ad Parnassum. While this musical reference in itself is
enough to interest me in Klee's painting, I am more fascinated by
the constellation of colours and sense of contrast which he
employs. With Ad Parnassum however, I made no attempt to
attach any program to the music.
Work Details
Year: 1989
Instrumentation: Flute.
Difficulty: Advanced
Arrangement of original work for mixed ensemble.
Subjects
- Inspired by: Visual arts works
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