Music for Piccolo (from Something Bigger)

(2008) 4' / from "Something Bigger" for solo piccolo flute (2008)

Premiered in August 2008 in Cologne, Germany by Camilla Hoitenga

Commissioned by the Cologne New Music Society

program text
To compose a new work for a concert in which Karlheinz Stockhausen is center stage is truly a great honor for me. In contrast to the length of time I worked with him (almost 12 years), I have kept my contribution to a brief four minutes. The significance of Stockhausen’s personality and his works in my life would arguably warrant a more weighty instrumentation but I believe that the piccolo alone is sufficient for the time being to create a closeness to him. This is created on the one hand through the instrument, and on the other hand through the performer and the composition itself. From the innumerable rehearsals and performances with Katinka Pasveer and of ZUNGENSPITZENTANZ, which Stockhausen dedicated to her, I still have the piccolo’s sound ringing in my ears. Katinka played this modest piece of wood both with the utmost precision and astonishing depth of sound.

 

I am particularly happy about the opportunity to write music for Camilla Hoitinga, whom I have known for almost 30 years. I have her to thank for my first contact to Karlheinz Stockhausen. The first time I was in Cologne in the summer of 1983, Camilla – whom I already knew from our studies together at the University of Illinois – introduced me to Mark Tezak, who was playing the tap-dancing trombonist Lucifer in DONNERSTAG aus LICHT at the time. He was looking for a successor for the planned production at the Royal Opera Covent Garden. Consequently, I ordered the music for IN FREUNDSCHAFT, the ‘audition piece’, and on 3 November, 1983 played for Stockhausen in his kitchen in Kürten. To his question of whether or not I could tap dance, I simply answered ‘yes’. Thus began my work for him which lasted until 1996. (Thank you, Camilla!)

 

A certain comment of Stockhausen’s about his way of seeing the world is reflected in this piece: on a train journey together, he told me that he cannot always sort all the information that is crashing into him, so he, for example, counts the telephone posts speeding by. I found this appealing both because I do it myself – perhaps everyone does it – and at the same time found it refreshingly senseless.

 

Music for Piccolo solo (from "Something Bigger") is not designed to be a stand-alone work, but is a part of a duo, Something Bigger, for flute and percussion. However, in the context of this concert, where less is perhaps more, it will very likely act as a fanfare, which wouldn’t bother me at all.

 

Music for Piccolo solo was commissioned by the Society for New Music Cologne (Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Köln) and written for Camilla Hoitenga who played its world premiere on 23 August, 2008.

 

Notes: The speed of Tempo I is calculated from the possible tempo of the figure in bars 20-21. Tempo II is proportional to Tempo I at the ratio of 3:2 and Tempo I is proportional to Tempo III at the ratio of 2:1; i.e. if Tempo I were 80, then Tempo II would be 120 and Tempo III would be 40. 

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