Ensemble intercontemporain | Thomas Simaku – Klang Inventions (UK Premiere)
Thomas Simaku – Klang Inventions for Six Players (UK Premiere)
Ensemble intercontemporain
Sophie Cherrier - alto flute, flute
Jérôme Comte - clarinet, bass clarinet
Jeanne-Marie Conquer - violin
Éric-Maria Couturier - cello
Dimitri Vassilakis - piano
François Vallet - percussion
This piece was commissioned by The Pharos Arts Foundation for the Austrian ensemble Klangforum Wien. The music here focuses on ‘family resemblances’, where specific instruments take a leading role in the musical argument at strategic stages of the formal structure and are highlighted for their colour, virtuosity and their expressive qualities.
Using the same instrumentation as Boulez’s Derive 1, the textural format is based on certain instrumental ‘alliances’ within the ensemble. The idea here was to create an overall formal structure that would have elements of a ‘multi-movement’ composition, but at the same time preserve the continuity of an uninterrupted line on a macro-structural level. The musical idiom is centred on specific aspects of white modality constantly surrounded by chromatic and microtonal inflections. A clear example here is the textural format of the invention in the middle section, which explores the drone-based type of linearity.
© TS
Performed live by the soloists of Ensemble intercontemporain at the University of York on Wednesday 23 November 2022 as part of the YorkConcerts Series.