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Music for 5 instruments

Music for 5 instruments

for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano
(
2018
)
By simply taking "Music" as the title, the focus of the composition lies on the abstract, musical content without the listener's imagination being guided beforehand by a story. Just because of the objectivity of the title, the experience of the music can go in all directions.
This idea also applied to Music for 3 instruments (2010), which resulted in a fruitful collaboration with Het Collectief, an ensemble that later commissioned this composition for the 5 instruments of their solid nucleus.
 
In both compositions I searched for a fusion of the different instruments so that the compositions sound like they were played by one instrument.  Although the instruments merge into one another in timbre and harmony, they rarely play simultaneously, so that they seem to be constantly searching for one another on a rhythmic level.
 
In the beginning of "Music for 5 instruments" this is done by having the instruments imitate each other in different tempi. In this way the music comes to life seemingly improvisationally.
In the middle movement the instruments merge using special techniques: whistle tones in the alto flute, multiphonics in the clarinet and high harmonics in the strings.
The first major contrasts can only be heard in the last movement, where the instruments also enter into discussion with each other and evolve into a final climax.
 
Due to the intense collaboration with the musicians, it was possible to write a score in which each musician not only plays a virtuoso, quasi soloist part, but where the greatest challenge is reflected in the interaction between one and another.
Music for 5 instruments

Music for 5 instruments (fragment)

Het Collectief - Premiere concert
(02/12/2018 Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht)

Music for 5 instruments - First Movement

Bram Van Camp - Music for 5 instruments - First Movement

Het Collectief, live concert
23/11/2019, Le Senghor, Brussels

Duration
15 minutes
Intrumentation
  • Flute / Alto flute
  • Clarinet / Bass clarinet in Bb / Clarinet in Eb
  • Violin
  • Violoncello
  • Piano
Publisher
Donemus
Commissioned by
Het Collectief

Premiere

02/12/2018
Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht (NL),
Het Collectief