Instrumentation:
3.3.3.3.-4.3.3.1.-batt. (x5)-arpa-piano-keyboard-strings
Year:
2022
Dur. (min.):
29
Premiere
20.01.2023 “Bulgaria” Concert Hall, Sofia, Bulgaria
Symphony Orchestra of Bulgarian National Radio
Cond: Konstantin Dobroykov
Info/Program notes:
Commissioned by Bulgarian National Radio
… a flying Icarus. bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk! This is how James Joyce describes the utter cracking of thunder. However, it is something more than a mere physical scare fallen from the sky in order to shake the earthly body from the inside.
The thunder is the crushing force into the core of our soul.
The thunder is the fall of Icarus into the depths of the sea.
The thunder is the sinking swell into the ephemeral matter of the dream.
Joyce believed that during sleep man must redeem himself by means of a quest, which takes him beyond himself into a world without definitions. This quest seems to be a dream through a constant process of waking. duermevela (to be awake while asleep (Spanish)) is a dream of sounds, in which different images are superimposed, merged or flowed into one another. The instruments align themselves hectically as if part of a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, in which one could recognize both rumbling thunders and familiar shapes from past and present times. Through their unclear bleak outlines, one could see that they are dancing, singing folkloric tunes, laughing and mourning.
The darkness is illuminated by the light of a single candle. A candle with a flame that could not be put out. A fire which throbs even in the dark blue of the ocean depths, giving me strength to breathe in the morning dawn, strength to flap my wings high to the blinding sun, to the singing choir of birds, to my awakening as if I am…