: Pavana (1974) :
 
spatial piece for 6 instruments 
var. ca. 7'

Composition for flute (alto), oboe (Cor E), bass clarinet, bassoon, horn (Wagner tuba) and piano. Composed in 1974 in Berlin and premiered in the same year in Frankfurt at the Hessischer Rundfunk (dir. Klaus Billing).

Similar to the old dance, the piece is composed of three different sections. Using a microphone system of 6 independent channels, the players distribute a sound material in the hall based on the series of natural overtones (up to the 7th overtone) - by alternately moving towards one of the 6 microphones at different tempos. In this way, they create a sound projection in constant pulsation, with stable and unstable phases, at the different points of the hall. The composition thus incorporates the movement of the musicians in the space as an additional parameter. Each instrumentalist independently imagines his own measure of time, which coordinates his movements between the microphones and the sound events played there. In the process, a complex plan controls, in turn, with the help of the sound system, the spatial distribution of the sounds. In this sense, Pavana is a structured, temporal articulation of musical and physical space. Thus, the title of the piece is a double reference: on the one hand, the spatial structure points to the Renaissance dance >Pavana< (Padovana), and on the other hand, the piece takes as its harmonic basis the theme of >Pavana< by Maurice Ravel.

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