A short video from our first meeting with Apollonio tells only half the story of how intrigued and excited we were to meet him and be introduced to his ideas and composition framework.
ZOOM has been such a great tool for collaborating (when it's not important to be in-sync) and has allowed us to meet our composers across borders and continents.
Apollonio sent us an audio and pdf of his composition draft. His ideas are taking us from the comfort of being able to sight-read most music to cliff-hanging multi-tonalities and modal scales as created by Messiaen (click on the link to find out more), microtonal writing (only for flute - thank goodness!) and some very precisely written rhythms which create an intricate pattern between flute and piano.
The composition title is 'Still life' ('Still Leben' in German or 'Natura Morta' in Italian are the original titles).
The video is a taste of the music which is playing almost throughout, the score which is overlaid from time to to time and Apollonio's comments about how he is composing.
For us, this is the most precious of stages in our commission; when we find out about the soul and drive of the composer and preparing ourselves to respond to their mindset in a way that fulfills our brief but also their response to us as an ensemble.
We are learning a great deal from this and we feel richer for the experience.
Roll on Phase 2!
