Temperature

Klaus Ib Jørgensen Temperature (1993) for accordion solo and sinfonietta

Commissioned by the Athelas Ensemble To Geir Draugsvoll

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Klaus Ib Jørgensen Temperature (1993) for accordion solo and sinfonietta

NOTES The title of the work refers to some of the ideas I have had as the basis of this composition. The form of the work is in many ways tied to a series of images that give expression to natural forces and the energy they sometimes release. So instead of the more traditional formal musical terms like introduction, development, concentration, dilution, coda etc., the key words I have made use of are zero point, thaw, overheating, acute freezing, permafrost etc.

Temperature is thus a picture - although stylized compared with real physical possibilities - of a number of physical processes in an unnamed element.

Since the work is a solo concerto, the soloist will certainly burn a few Joules along the way!

Klaus Ib Jørgensen From the mechanical noise of the soloist’s instrument a restless tonal motion grows. With the title of the work in mind one could easily associate this beginning with the molecular motions in matter. As we know, such motions are dependent on temperature and thus in turn determine the changes of state in matter. That musical material could be subject to similar laws of nature is the bearing idea in the accordion concerto. In the first section of the work the motion takes place within a narrow register. Perhaps the matter is solid, its molecules fixed in a grid. And in the subsequent musical development one can imagine that the musical energy states correspond to a liquid and a gaseous state. At a given point the material is frozen down to absolute zero in a static episode with (toneless) noise as the only activity, after which an overheating of the material leads to the soloist’s cadenza.

Af den mekaniske støj fra solistens instrument vokser en rastløs tonebevægelse frem. Med værkets titel in mente kan man let associere denne begyndelse til molekylebevægelserne i materien.

Bevægelserne er som bekendt afhængige af temperaturen og er via denne også bestemmende for stoffets faseovergange.

Forestillingen om at musikalsk stof kunne være underlagt lignende naturlove er den bærende idé i akkordeonkoncerten. I værkets første afsnit sker bevægelsen inden for et snævert register. Måske er stoffet fast, dets molekyler låst i et gitter. Og i det efterfølgende musikalske forløb kan man forestille sig at de musikalske energitilstande modsvarer en flydende og en luftformig fase. På et givet tidspunkt nedfryses stoffet til nær det absolutte nulpunkt i en statisk episode med (nodeløse) støjlyde som eneste aktivitet, hvorefter en overophedning af stoffet fører til solistens kadence.

A characteristic feature of the accordion concerto is the music’s almost imperceptible branching and growth via ‘sound paths’: the soloist’s material ‘spreads’ and divides very gradually with or is overtaken by instruments with related sounds. In this refined way the music more than once in the course of the work expands without a break from soloist to full ensemble.

Et karakteristisk træk ved akkordeonkoncerten er musikkens næsten umærkeligt forgrening og vækst via ‘klanglige stier’: solistens materiale ‘griber om sig’ og deles ganske gradvis med eller overtages af lydligt beslægtede instrumenter. På denne raffinerede måde ekspanderer musikken mere end én gang i værkets forløb brudløst fra solist til fuldt ensemble.

Niels Rosing-Schow, 2001

Niels Rosing-Schow, 2001

INSTRUMENTATION Accordion solo Flute (doubling piccolo & alto in G) Oboe Clarinet in Bb (doubling bass clarinet in Bb) 2 horns in F Trumpet in C Trombone Piano Harp Percussion 1: Vibraphone, glockenspiel, crotales (F2, G2, G#2), medium tam-tam, small bongo on stand, large roto-tom.

Percussion 2: Marimba, crotales (G2, G#2), small sizzle cymbal, medium woodblock, 5 temble blocks, 5 octobans, 3 bongos on stand, 4 tom-toms, bass drum (Gran Cassa).

2 violins Viola Violoncello Double bass

ARRANGEMENT OF THE ORCHESTRA

Percussion I

Percussion II

Bassoon

Horn II Violin II

Oboe

Viola Trumpet

Violin I

Flute

Double bass Horn I

Harp

Clarinet Cello

Accordion

Audience

Trombone