PARTITIONS GRATUITES : QUATUOR DE SAXOPHONES
- Naanaanaa

SKU: HL.49044706

Weltbezuge in Neuer Musik. Edited by Joern Peter Hiekel. This edition: Paperback/Soft Cover. Book. Edition Schott. Classical Reference, German Edition. Softcover. 218 pages. Schott Music #ED 22346. Published by Schott Music (HL.49044706).

ISBN 9783795708900. 6.5x9.5 inches. German.

Inwieweit ist die oft zu horende These berechtigt, der zufolge sich die zeitgenossische Musik der letzten Jahre in vollig neuartiger Weise auf die Gegenwart bezieht und sich in ihr eine konzeptionelle Wende vollzieht? Die 68. Fruhjahrstagung des Instituts fur Neue Musik und Musikerziehung in Darmstadt vom 23. bis 26. April 2014 diskutierte grundsatzliche Erfahrungen und Auffassungen zu dem, was Aspekte wie etwa Engagement, Alltaglichkeit oder Wirklichkeitsbezug in Musik uberhaupt heissen konnen.Sie portratierte die Komponisten Helmut Lachenmann und Manos Tsangaris. Und sie brachte KomponistInnen der mittleren und jungeren Generation ins Gesprach, die mit bestechender Energie und einer neuen Vielfalt an digitalen Moglichkeiten auf einen Paradigmenwechsel zielen: Brigitta Muntendorf, Annesley Black, Trond Reinoldtsen, Hannes Seidl, Martin Schuttler, Mesias Maiguashca und Manos Tsangaris. Weitere AutorInnen des Bandes sind Jorn Peter Hiekel, Dieter Mersch, Patrick Frank, Lydia Jeschke, Wolfgang Rudiger, Rainer Nonnenmann, Barbara Balba Weber, Wolfgang Lessing und Raoul Morchen.

Piano, Violin, Violoncello

SKU: FG.55011-526-2

Composed by Kai Nieminen. Score and parts. Fennica Gehrman #55011-526-2. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-526-2).

ISBN 9790550115262.

The poetry of Emily Dickinson has been one of the sources of inspiration for Kai Nieminen (1953-). Piano trio Reflecting Landscapes was inspired by Dickinson's poem A bird came down a walk, a same poem that also gave name to a piece for viola and piano by Toru Takemitsu. Takemitsu being one composer that Nieminen helds in high esteem. Especially calm, meditative athmosphere at the beginning of the piano trio has much that reminds listener from Nieminen's Japanese collegue. The tolling chruch bell -like motives reminds the composer from the death of his father, that occurred at the time of the composition of the piece. Later in the piece, bird song -like motives emerge, like birds in the calm summer night somewhere in the north. The piece was commissioned by Trio la Rue and they gave the first performance at Saaksmaki Soi -festival 6th July 2011.
The poetry of Emily Dickinson has been one of the sources of inspiration for Kai Nieminen (1953-). Piano trio Reflecting Landscapes was inspired by Dickinson's poem A bird came down a walk, a same poem that also gave name to a piece for viola and piano by Toru Takemitsu. Takemitsu being one composer that Nieminen helds in high esteem. Especially calm, meditative athmosphere at the beginning of the piano trio has much that reminds listener from Nieminen's Japanese collegue. The tolling chruch bell -like motives reminds the composer from the death of his father, that occurred at the time of the composition of the piece. Later in the piece, bird song -like motives emerge, like birds in the calm summer night somewhere in the north. The piece was commissioned by Trio la Rue and they gave the first performance at Saaksmaki Soi -festival 6th July 2011.

Guitar

SKU: FG.55011-324-4

Composed by Kai Nieminen. Fennica Gehrman #55011-324-4. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-324-4).

ISBN 9790550113244.

Quad ri Morandi (2014) ties together two essential themes of Kai Niminen's (b. 1953) compositional style: guitar and a subject inspired by Italy. The strong presence of the guitar in his works is natural since he is in an actively performing guitarist himself, and guitar works indeed play a significant role in his oeuvre. Moreover, he has written plenty of orchestral music; for instance two symphonies, numerous concertos, and chamber music. In the field of Finnish music he is a composer who can be characterized as free from any specific school or style. In his musical language, free tonal in essence, one can detect traces of Impressionism, Neoromanticism and even Expressionism at times, but he is also willing to employ more recent 20th-century stylistic devices. Nieminen has mentioned that he finds himself very similar to Japanese Toru Takemitsu both musically and in thought.

Mediterannean culture and Italy especially have been close to Nieminen's heart ever since he first visited the country and appeared in the jury of the international Fernando Sor guitar competition in 1981. He has composed a great number of works which refer to Italian landscapes or artists. The work Quadri Morandi (Morandi's pictures) is written in four movements. It has at its centre the painter Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964), who is known as a master of still lifes and landscapes painted in a plain manner and is subdued colours. Their atmosphere typically reflects a calm spirit. This is the third guitar work that nieminen has written for Kleemola.

It is easy to find a counterpart for the encaptivating realm of Morandi's art in Nieminen's clear and pure expression. The titles and expression markings also include several references to Morandi. For example, in the opening movement Prelude the words la Natura morta (still life) appear as an additional note on the chord sequence following the freely flowing opening section. At the end of the movement one can hear rhythmic motif coloured with flageolets that repeats the syllables of the painter's name: Gior-gio Moran-di. A similar motif can be heard at the end of the second movement Quasi cadenza. The tranquilly breathing third movement Paesaggio (landscape) creates an illusion of landscape by imitating the echo of monastery bells (come campane del monastero) and at the same time refers to il monaco (the monk), the name by which Morandi was often called. The final movement Ritratto (Portrait) is the most extensive of all the movements and can be seen, with its recurring motifs, as a reflection of the stable yet subtly varying elements of Morandi's art. The work ends with the rhythmic motif that once more echoes Morandi's name, like signature.

Flute, piano

SKU: FG.55011-613-9

Composed by Kai Nieminen. Fennica Gehrman #55011-613-9. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-613-9).

ISBN 9790550116139.

The music of Finnish composer Kai Nieminen (b. 1953) does not conform to any isms. He remarks: I feel like I am a painter in music, who having seen or experienced something attempts to give that something a shape in music. The flute concerto Palomar was written for Patrick Gallois and premiered 2001 in Milan, Italy. The idea for his Flute Concerto came to Nieminen at the Villa Lante in Rome when he was kept awake by persistent birdsong in the heat of the night. The title alludes to the last novel, Palomar, by Italo Calvino. Though Nieminen finds inspiration in literature, the visual arts and nature, he has no desire to confine the listener to any programme. The aim of the extra-musical stimuli is at most to fire his listeners' imagination and to make them savour musical visions with a mind as open as that of Calvino's Mr Palomar examining the little wonders of the world around him. The orchestral score is available for sale (ISMN 9790550096370) and the performance material for hire from Fennica Gehrman.

Guitar

SKU: FG.55011-071-7

Hommage to Paul Klee. Composed by Kai Nieminen. Fennica Gehrman #55011-071-7. Published by Fennica Gehrman (FG.55011-071-7).

ISBN 9790550110717.

Comp leted in Karstula, Finland during late July 2010, this carefully structured, but also free-ranging work is drawn from ideas for a much earlier work in four movements, Fantasy dating from the 1980s.
Kai Nieminen has been for a long time an admirer of the work of artist Paul Klee (1879-1940), and the solo presented in its final form here is influenced by the painting Dances caused by Fear or as it is often refered to Dancing from Fear painted towards the end of Klee's life in Bern, 1938.
Having left Germany for Switzerland in December 1933, Klee's later works were often full of signs and lines, very often represented in black, depicting human figures or various objects against a variety of coloured backgrounds, in the case of this painting of a brownish hue. This development in his painting style and technique is felt by some to be an effect perhaps of his long-term illness, systemic sclerosis, but in the case of Dances caused by Fear there is suggested an atmosphere of panic and terror, an attempt to escape from horrors to come (World War II), represented in the violent movement of the arms and legs of the figures, and the dark, indeed brooding nature of the colours.
In Kai Nieminen's guitar work Images of Fear, there is only a very brief passage of calm at the very beginning, after which come three main connected sections in which a wide range of musically unsettling ideas emerge one by one, making use of the tritone, minor seconds, glissandos, tamboura, campanella, etc. The third and final section incorporates the grouping of 5 sixteenth-notes, to give an uneasy feeling to the music, with a short haunting and pleading five-note phrase (Cantando) heard immediately following this passage, before the work ends with further glissandos, and distant and diminishing harmonics.
As with Kai Nieminen's other guitar works, the use of 'orchestral colour' is vital to the performance, and passages suggestive of for example brass, strings, woodwind, etc., should be taken into account and played with suitably considered contrast of tone.

John Mills.