Sea of Tranquility
Guitar Concerto
Description
The title Sea of Tranquility refers to the economical way of organizing the pitches in this work; carefully chosen tones are fixed to their places for a very long time. All the twelve notes of the tempered system are introduced not before halfway through the work. Changes also do occur, however, very slowly: like the very first note, the guitar’s low E stays steady in its place almost during the whole work. Only in the end, it finally starts to move, although in a surprising direction. Despite the stillness being an essential part of the character of the pitches, Sea of Tranquility also has its surging waves: occasionally, static situations grow into a furious storm. Although this is a concerto, I wanted to avoid the most common concerto clichés. Instead of a large orchestra, only six carefully chosen instruments accompany the soloist. The guitar is not an indisputable solo star; it often merges into the same fusion with the other instruments. Besides some brief soloistic moments, a proper classical solo cadenza does not appear. The only cadenza-like passage turns quickly into a duo for guitar and saxophone. TR, 2005
Instrumentation
guit solo, afl, asax+barsax/cl+bcl, perc, vln, vla, vlc
CategoryChamber Works
Premiere
Mikko Ikäheimo, solo guitar, Hanna Kinnunen, afl., Olli-Pekka Tuomisalo, sax, Tuomo Huhdanpää, perc., Anna Hohti, vln, Hanna Korkeakoski, vla, Markus Hohti, vlc and Nils Schweckendiek, cond. November 1, 2005, Helsinki
Commisioned by / dedicationsCommissioned by Kantakaupungin kitarakonsertit ry with funds from Luses. Dedicated to Mikko Ikäheimo.
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