Orchestration of Sonorities in Renaissance Polyphony
Amazing Moments in Timbre Ben Duinker Amazing Moments in Timbre Ben Duinker

Orchestration of Sonorities in Renaissance Polyphony

We might think about how a single voice part within a composition expresses a mode (one of the prevailing systems governing the organization of pitch in this period), or how multiple voice parts move against one another (counterpoint, from the Latin contrapunctus—literally means note-against-note), creating successions of intervals. This essay focuses on the amazing moments ensconced in those intervals: the way they are arranged, the spaces between them, and ultimately, the sonorities they create.

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Cellophane — FKA twigs
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Nicholas Burton Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Nicholas Burton

Cellophane — FKA twigs

A tragic ode to perseverance and rebirth, “Cellophane” tackles the intense emotions of a public celebrity romance scrutinized by online critics. In “Cellophane,” repetitive lyrical content such as “didn’t I do it for you?” express twigs’s disbelief in her own crumbling relationship while other lyrics (e.g., “they want to see us, want to see us apart”) relate to the taxing nature of online comments.

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Flourish — Sarah Hennies
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays J Marchand Knight Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays J Marchand Knight

Flourish — Sarah Hennies

From the very beginning of the piece, Sarah Hennies’s Flourish for two vibraphone players, leads us into an extraordinary, mystical, new world of sound. What is so enigmatic about this piece is that a lot of the music happens in a realm of timbre beyond what is written and what is played. Precisely and cleanly scored in minimalist fashion of single-measure repeating cells, the atmospheric reverberations produced by the vibraphone are here left to write their own counterpoint….

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The Unanswered Question – Charles Ives
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Jason Noble Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Jason Noble

The Unanswered Question – Charles Ives

In 1908, American composer Charles Ives composed The Unanswered Questionfor string orchestra, solo trumpet (or English Horn) and four flutes (or three oboes and one clarinet). This piece inspired Leonard Bernstein’s famous Norton Lectures of the same title at Harvard in 1973 and continues to capture the imaginations of musicians and audiences today….

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Hommage à Klaus Nomi
Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Julie Delisle Amazing Moments in Timbre, Essays Julie Delisle

Hommage à Klaus Nomi

The Amazing Moments in Timbre series continue with a piece by Olga Neuwirth. Known as the "Enfant terrible" of the Austrian contemporary classical music scene, Neuwirth composes in a very theatrical and expressionist way, and describes her own art as a music of catastrophes ("Katastrophenmusik"). In her Hommage à Klaus Nomi(2009), for countertenor and chamber ensemble…

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