Wind Serenade (2012-13)
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, soprano/alto saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, contrabass, timpani, 3 percussion - 25'
I. March
II. Allegro
III. Minuet and Trio (Andante)
IV. a. Allegro
b. Il vecchio tedesco
c. Vivo
V. Zora
VI. Allegretto
VII. March
Wind Serenade is constructed from "discovered" fragments of a piece of music by a
fictional early twentieth-century composer, Vilém Zdeněk Stezka, that exemplifies both his mature compositional style and preoccupations as well as the changing musical conventions of the time between the World Wars. The work has been completed by a fictional me whose research into Stezka's style, aesthetic, and motivations (as well as his own biographical details) have informed his musical choices, some of which seem rather extreme.
The work is Stezka's last and much of the manuscript was lost in a earthquake in Northern Italy (where he lived at the end of his life). The piece itself is an early example of Neoclassicism, quoting, alluding to, and culling the general style of eighteenth-century wind serenade from Southern Germany. Stezka borrows music from himself as well, mostly vocal music with texts by Rilke, that he appropriates into this instrumental idiom (knowledge of which deepens one's understanding of his expressive intentions).
While research reveals some of the expressive agenda of the work that Stezka perhaps did not feel the need to make public, listeners can turn a similarly inquisitive ear towards the "editor" of the work, the fictional Podgorsek, whose own expressive agenda (whether he intends this to be true or not) is encoded in the work as well.
I. March
II. Allegro
III. Minuet and Trio (Andante)
IV. a. Allegro
b. Il vecchio tedesco
c. Vivo
V. Zora
VI. Allegretto
VII. March
Wind Serenade is constructed from "discovered" fragments of a piece of music by a
fictional early twentieth-century composer, Vilém Zdeněk Stezka, that exemplifies both his mature compositional style and preoccupations as well as the changing musical conventions of the time between the World Wars. The work has been completed by a fictional me whose research into Stezka's style, aesthetic, and motivations (as well as his own biographical details) have informed his musical choices, some of which seem rather extreme.
The work is Stezka's last and much of the manuscript was lost in a earthquake in Northern Italy (where he lived at the end of his life). The piece itself is an early example of Neoclassicism, quoting, alluding to, and culling the general style of eighteenth-century wind serenade from Southern Germany. Stezka borrows music from himself as well, mostly vocal music with texts by Rilke, that he appropriates into this instrumental idiom (knowledge of which deepens one's understanding of his expressive intentions).
While research reveals some of the expressive agenda of the work that Stezka perhaps did not feel the need to make public, listeners can turn a similarly inquisitive ear towards the "editor" of the work, the fictional Podgorsek, whose own expressive agenda (whether he intends this to be true or not) is encoded in the work as well.
