Tributes - Album For Strings

Tributes - Album For Strings (1994-95) by Per Nørgård.

Parts are available on hire: [email protected]

I: FOUR OBSERVATIONS – FROM AN INFINTE RAPPORT – hommage a Bartok (1995)

II: OUT OF THIS WORLD – hommage a Lutoslawski (1994)

III: VOYAGE INTO THE BROKEN SCREEN - hommage a Sibelius (1995).

Programme note

“TRIBUTES – album for strings” (1994-95) includes three hommages, which might also be performed separately.The shared point of departure was the hommage to three major composers of the 20th century – Bartok, Lutoslawski and Sibelius.

In FOUR OBSERVATIONS the hommage is to Bartok (on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death 1995). Hungarian Radio asked me to write a piece in his honor, but apart from the very last unison string figure , which is - I think - very Bartokian, the work in no way intends to evoke, even less to imitate, the musical style of the great Hungarian master. This would be an act of impudence against a composer who was such an exceptionally integrated personality, and who has himself shown (in 'Mikrokosmos') the worthy way to pay a personal tribute to highly respected colleagues: In 'Hommage á J.S.B.' and 'Hommage à R. Sch.' Bela Bartok composes in his own manner but lets the music reflect some qualities of the said composers, as perceived in Bartok's mind. In a similar way my 'Observations from an infinite Rapport' reflects as well the timeless proportions of the 'golden section' - which seem to have inspired Bartok so much, - in his great respect for perceptive, structural patterns.

'OUT OF THIS WORLD' was composed at the request of a group of Lutoslawski's friends, as a symbol of parting to a great composer and a noble man. The title quotes a poem by Yunus Emre, the Turkish 14th century poet. The opening line of the poem 'Biz dünyadan' reads as follows in English translation: 'We are on the way out of this world, we