… e poi c’era… (Symphony n° 1)

Composed in
1985

For
Orchestra

Instrumentation
3/3/3/3 – 4/3/3/1 – 4 Perc. – H – P – Strings

Duration
15′

First performance
September 27, 1985 at Hoogpoort Hall in Groningen (NL). Philharmonic Orchestra of the NOS (Dutch Radio) conducted by David PORCELIJN.

Dedicated to
John Califra

AwardsThis work was awarded the Third Prize at the Competition for Young European Composers in Amsterdam (NL) in 1985, and the mention Best Work in the category young composers at the International Rostrum of Composers at the UNESCO in Paris (F) in 1986.Commercial recordingsCyprès CYP 2609 (2cd)

Publisher
Donemus

Luc on …e poi c’era… (Symphony n°1) :

This work was composed in januari 1985 on request of my former teacher André Laporte to be originally first performed at the occasion of a EBU-concert in Madrid in december ’85. That performance finally became the second, since the work received the 3rd Prize at the European Competition for Young Composers organized in Amsterdam and received its premiere on september 27, 1985 in the Cultural Center Hoogpoort in Groningen by the NOS Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David PORCELIJN. The italian title means .., and then there was…. The composition got this title because it was the first I wrote after a year of absolute (creative) silence. I used to compose in so-called post-serial style, exception made for one work (Het Raadsel van de Sfinks – The Enigma of the Sphinx – filmmusic for 6 Players) in which were elements of overtone-techniques, which are now a constant in my output. After this silence came .., e poi c’era…. The work is in one single movement, divided into 5 sections, of which only the 4th is clearly different. The basic idea consists in a kind of noise -described by a Dutch critic as an organ with leaky pipes- based upon harmonics in the low string instruments, their strings tuned even very ‘loose’, with percussion. This noise is very regularly coloured in the most diverse ways. It’s actually not very much more than that, but elaborated until the smallest details. Everything is on the edge of the inaudible. After some 10 minutes comes a Tutti in fortissimo, followed by a huge crescendo. The last section is some sort of mirror of the start. The score end with a question mark : I supposed things would be clarified in Komm! Hebe dich…, my Second Symphony. This Symphony is dedicated to my American friend and fellow-composer John Califra.Luc Brewaeys

Harry Halbreich on Symphony Nr. 1, …, E poi c’era…

This was composed in January and February of 1985, following a suggestion from Brewaeys’ teacher André Laporte. The piece is scored for a normal symphony orchestra of 87 players (with four percussionists) and is dedicated to my American friend and colleague composer John Califra. It was to be premiered in Madrid during a concert of the ERU (Union of European Radios) in December 1985, but this actually turned out to be the second performance, for in the meantime the piece had won a third prize in Amsterdam, as has been mentioned before, and thus received its premiere the 27th September at the Oosterpoort hall in Groningen during a concert of the Dutch Radio Symphony orchestra under David Porcelijn. The Italian subtitle means : … and then it happened…, the composer explaining it from the fact that the work was composed after a full year of creative silence. Before that, he had been writing in a post-serial idiom, but just once, in a film score (the Riddle of the Sphinx) he had explored overtone techniques for the first time. They were henceforth to become a main element of his musical language. In the present work, the chosen spectra differ from those in later pieces through their very complex and dissonant nature. We often gain the impression that the young composer wants to simulate electro-acoustic sounds with purely instrumental means. Noise frequencies often appear, which a Dutch critic aptly likened to an organ with pierced pipes. They are produced by harmonics played on totally slackened low strings, but breathing sounds of the winds add to this unusual sound picture. The work breaks down intro five sections, played without interruption.Part one (bars 1-49): it opens in the realm of sheer noise with a counterpoint of ascending and descending glissandi of skinned percussions and strings playing tremolos, a main element of the whole piece. Very dry and violent interjections of the percussions and some complexes of overtones played by the strings in harmonics are then added. A very violent blow (another archetypal gesture of Brewaeys’ music) is sounded towards the middle of this section, which is separated from the next one by a pause of seven seconds.Part Two (bars 50-121): this begins with another blow, to be followed by several more during this whole section. The basic elements of Part One are here being developed in a dialogue between various instrumental groups (the skinned percussions now appearing but rarely). Glissandi remain the most important material, but we also hear multiphonics of the clarinets, as well as a short episode during which the three trombones, equipped with wa-wa mutes, build a canonic structure of falling glissandi. From bar 103, two big harmonic sound complexes are building up, the first one played by the wind instruments, the second by the strings (harmonics and sul ponticello sounds). Two violent, very dry blows end this part.Part Three (bars 122-154): this fairly brief section recapitulates elements from Part One, but in thinner, more chamber music-like structures, opposing small, homogeneous instrumental groups. Notce some weird glissandi of gongs dipped into water (water gongs).Part Four (bars 155-196): at the exact point of the Golden Section, a triple fortissimo suddenly bursts out: this section thus strongly contrasting with all the others. The woodwind produce their most piercing sounds (whistling of the flutes, overblowing of the oboes, the clarinet players biting their reeds), the blows gradually densify to very quick, repeated pulsating rhythms, which in a war articulate the previous harmonic complexes. This terrifying climax breaks up abruptly.Part Five (bars 197-249): this very free recapitulation of elements from Parts One and Three round off the work. At bars 214-215, a quotation of the Dies Irae is heard very softly as a solo of plucked piano sounds from inside the instrument. Towards the end, the music reaches a unison A of the woodwind, from which a complex chord (basically a second inversion of b-flat minor with many added notes) evolved, swelling into a brief triple fortissimo, immediately cut short. In the resonance of this chord, the conductor still keeps his arm raised during the pedal point of three seconds of the last bar, which carries no music, but only a giant question mark. According to the composer, the answer to this is given by the Second Symphony.

© Harry Halbreich, september 1995, CD Booklet Cyprès CYP 2609