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- Per Nørgård
Out of This World - Parting (1994)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Programme Note
OUT OF THIS WORLD – PARTING. Witold Lutoslawski in memoriam (1994) for string orchestra (alternative instrumentation: for 10 solo strings).
Per Nørgård wrote two programme notes for the work – both in English. You may use the one most suitable for you:
Short version:
My suite “Tributes – album for strings” (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately.
The shared point of departure was the homage to three major composers of the 20th century – Bartok, (Four Observations - from an infinite Rapport, 1995), Lutoslawski (Out of this World - Parting, 1994) and Sibelius (Voyage into the Broken Screen, 1995).
“Out of the world – parting” (duration ca. 7 minutes) was composed at the request of a group of Lutoslawski´s friends, as a symbol of parting to a great composer and a noble man. The title quotes a poem by Yunus Emre, the Turkish 14th century poet. The opening line of the poem ´Biz dünyadan´reads as follows in English translation: ´We are on the way out of this world, we send our greetings to those left behind...´
Per Nørgård (1999)
Longer version.
My “Tributes – album for strings” (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately. The shared point of departure was the homage to three major composers of the 20th century – Bartok, (Four Observations - from an infinite Rapport,1995), Lutoslawski (Out of this World - Parting, 1994-95) and Sibelius (Voyage into the Broken Screen, 1995).
The death of Lutoslawski prompted the organization of the Warsaw Autumn 1995 to ask composers all over the world to compose works of commemoration. My contribution was, because of the nature of the situation, much more of an elegy than in the case of my Bartok tribute “Four observations – from an infinite rapport”. Based on a recent elegy for choir, I started from a line from Yunus Emre (a great 13th-century Turkish poet): “We are on our way out of this world. Our greetings to the ones we leave behind.” As my point of connection to Lutoslawski, I choose, in line with my comment to the Bartok tribute, his continuous will to ´rejuvenate´ the musical language, so stimulating to the development. So, by focusing on the seventh harmonic (on the G-string), I composed a work with a kind of ´depressed mood´ (interrupted by echoes of dance-like, whirling village music) where this natural, low F (created by overtones) interferes with the “normal” (well-tempered) F, an effect producing a mixed tonal feeling of an emotionally strangled character. The duration is around 7 minutes.
Per Nørgård (1999)
Per Nørgård wrote two programme notes for the work – both in English. You may use the one most suitable for you:
Short version:
My suite “Tributes – album for strings” (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately.
The shared point of departure was the homage to three major composers of the 20th century – Bartok, (Four Observations - from an infinite Rapport, 1995), Lutoslawski (Out of this World - Parting, 1994) and Sibelius (Voyage into the Broken Screen, 1995).
“Out of the world – parting” (duration ca. 7 minutes) was composed at the request of a group of Lutoslawski´s friends, as a symbol of parting to a great composer and a noble man. The title quotes a poem by Yunus Emre, the Turkish 14th century poet. The opening line of the poem ´Biz dünyadan´reads as follows in English translation: ´We are on the way out of this world, we send our greetings to those left behind...´
Per Nørgård (1999)
Longer version.
My “Tributes – album for strings” (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately. The shared point of departure was the homage to three major composers of the 20th century – Bartok, (Four Observations - from an infinite Rapport,1995), Lutoslawski (Out of this World - Parting, 1994-95) and Sibelius (Voyage into the Broken Screen, 1995).
The death of Lutoslawski prompted the organization of the Warsaw Autumn 1995 to ask composers all over the world to compose works of commemoration. My contribution was, because of the nature of the situation, much more of an elegy than in the case of my Bartok tribute “Four observations – from an infinite rapport”. Based on a recent elegy for choir, I started from a line from Yunus Emre (a great 13th-century Turkish poet): “We are on our way out of this world. Our greetings to the ones we leave behind.” As my point of connection to Lutoslawski, I choose, in line with my comment to the Bartok tribute, his continuous will to ´rejuvenate´ the musical language, so stimulating to the development. So, by focusing on the seventh harmonic (on the G-string), I composed a work with a kind of ´depressed mood´ (interrupted by echoes of dance-like, whirling village music) where this natural, low F (created by overtones) interferes with the “normal” (well-tempered) F, an effect producing a mixed tonal feeling of an emotionally strangled character. The duration is around 7 minutes.
Per Nørgård (1999)
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