Various :: Friccoes

Scherzo Editions presents ‘Friccoes.'

The six pieces included in the collection Friccoes for Flute Solo/Flute and Electronics provide a gathering of 5 Portuguese composers, each challenged to write a piece for flute - preferably with electronics - and each without a particular theme. Each piece is meant to bring to mind a theater play, a text, a work of visual art ; whether specific or implied merely by gestures and color.

O motivo da menina Laite (for solo flute): Once upon a time there was a girl who always showed up with a sound that filled every room without anyone noticing where it came from. In fact, it did not matter where it came from. Almost like a perfume, the sound followed the girl night and day, even when she was hiding or burrowing into a crowd. No matter where she went, there was always remnants of the sound constantly dancing with her shadow and scent. This is the story of a girl who has been finding her sound...

O Oraculo de Delfos (for flute and electronics): Tradition has it that, one day, Zeus let loose two eagles in opposite directions. After several trips, they met and dropped a stone carved with esoteric signs and the hidden name of the chosen place. It got stuck at the foot of Mount Parnassus and the place was Delphos.

#5 Letters to Wolfgang (for solo flute): Speech is not built on itself, but is a path to another text, passing through crosses and influences the speech of a new self. Although Letters absorbs a certain amount of musical quotations (Burckner, Stravinsky, Vivaldi, among others), different transformation processes are applied to them in order to reach aural connections far from the source. This wish to hide and transform seeks to symbolize the experience of forbidden love, hidden with the '5 Letters'.

Friccoes: Prologo, Accao (for flute and electronics): There are many views about our purpose on this earth, with our awareness. We spend a lifetime feeding our internal duel: mind versus body. There is no escape from evolution. There is no evolution without friction. This piece appeared as a challenge to the pursuit of our individual purpose. The 'Prolog' (Prologue) is taken as a calm and poetic preparation for the approaching times of change. The 'Accao' (Action) is the invitation to our inner warrior, to find peace within, to give oneself up to their purpose. There is no evolution without friction!

Reencontros num jardim efemero (for solo flute): This work, of a meditative nature, is inspired by the sonority of the Japanese shakuhachi bamboo flute. The use of long notes, alternated with moments of silence, reminds us of the tenuous and ephemeral nature of life.

Variacoes sobre Espaco #4 (for flute and customized downloadable software): This work continues the exploring the customer has been doing on dynamic reverberation and musical performance, in the field dedicated to the relationship between sound and space, representing at the same time an evolution of the original digital application that he developed for this purpose - Wallace.