Music archive entry |
|
Composer: Luiz Henrique Yudo Title: Five Palindromes Instrumentation: Flexible Duration: Variable, up to 10 minutes Difficulty: Moderate Technical Issues: The speed and volume of each of the movements are determined by the performers, and the notes played by each peformer are restricted to two each. Again the choice of notes is left to the performers. In this way, although much of the material on the page would appear to be very similar, the performer's interpretation of the material allows for considerable variation in the overall sound of each movement. The rhythmic material is however, precisely determined by the composer, as is his instruction to play smoothly ('legato'). Programme note: Luiz Henrique Yudo was born in Brazil in 1962 and went on to study architecture at the University of Sao Paulo. In 1985 he had had composition lessons with the Brazilian composer Damiano Cozzella at the University of Sao Paulo University, but is mostly self-taught. After visiting Amsterdam for the first time in 1986 he went on to study at the Nederlandse Film & Televisie Academie there. Yudo has had works played in Brazil, Germany, Belgium and the USA. The dictionary definition of palindrome is 'A word or verse, that reads the same backwards as forwards', for example: 'Lewd did I live and evil I did dwel'. In the five movements of this work (each of which is 16 bars long) Yudo applies the idea of palindrome so that the first 8 bars are a mirror image of the last 8 bars. The 1955 edition of 'The Oxford Companion to Music' states that because it is difficult to recognise the 'backwards' part of even a simple melody when played as a palindrome "its artistic value would appear to be slight or nil". The use of the technique in these pieces however, does serve here to provide additional cohesiveness to the musical style employed. Availability:Not certain |
More on London Chamber Group Forum London Composers' Group 5th September 2000 |