Classic Meets Jazz

Sabin Pautza
GAMES IX (ECHOES) for Combo and Orchestra

Composed and dedicated to the group of the saxophonist Nicolas Simion the work GAMES IX is part of a series named GAMES in which are present, more or less recognizable some rhythmic and melodic archetypes, typical for the Romanian folklore. There are found here, transfigured, many of the elements used in the other works of the cycle GAMES, where the idea of the subtitle ECHOES was born. The combo group consists of six performers - bb bass clarinet, piano, guitar, bass, accordion and percussion, all of them treated here as soloists. They are employed into a permanent dialog using a homogeneous material, while the string orchestra plays the role of commentator and the binder of the different segments in the work. From the architectural point of view this composition follows rigorously the sonata from, in the classical acceptance of the term. The difference appears in the recapitulation section, where the bridge is built with an entirely new material, considering the different meaning of it was on, in the exposition. The work is received as a mosaic made of unlike moments, which at the end are creating a whole, unitary piece. Some of the soloists (piano, bass clarinet) have the chance to improvise freely, while for the others the improvisations are specified in the score by the composer. Placed somewhere between jazz and the symphonic music, GAMES IX brings, obviously, something new the entire cycle of GAMES.
Sabin Pautza, Sibiu 2010

Norbert Scholly
PIECE FOR STRINGS AND JAZZ ENSEMBLE

My composition "Piece or Strings and Jazz Ensemble" was written to express the state of complete relaxation. Close your eyes, sit back and listen to the music — the effect will enchant.

Norbert Scholly, Cologne 2010
www.norbertscholly.de www.myspace.com/norbertscholly

Cristian Marina
TRIBUTE

I've always been addicted to jazz and under its influence, as a music lover, but also as a composer. Its language is quite at odds with my classical training, and yet a necessary and defining complement to it. You can trace it in most of my previous work, engrained in the very structure of my creative thinking and praxis. What fascinates me is the idea of bringing together improvisation and composition - these contrasting ways of conceiving and developing a musical material - into a consistent and coherent whole, with its own definite character. Still, this is the first time I leave it to jazz to set the tone and dictate the syntax of a piece. The challenge is all the greater when you write for a jazz group backed by a string orchestra – it’s a traditional combination in jazz and one that has given many legendary productions that are hard to equal. This piece is my personal tribute to jazz.

Cristian Marina, Stockholm 2010
www.cristianmarina.com

Dan Dediu
ROMÂNOLOGIE I

ROMÂNOLOGIE I uses some motives from the Othoman music by Dimitrie Cantemir (king of Moldavia at the beginning of 18th century). The orchestral frame tries, on the one hand, to preserve the oriental flavour and on the other hand brings a certain amount of modern harmony. The fusion with jazz improvisation implies new timbral aspects and a strange, but hip musical world.

Dan Dediu, Bucharest 2010
www.dandediu.com

Antonis Anisegos
NAU

NAU is the word for number nine in Esperanto and stands for infinity in Vortex Based Mathematics. “...The number nine is Energy being manifested in a single moment event of occurrence in our physical world of creation.” All rhythms and notes of the composition are interpretations of the numeralical diamond matrix, based on the number patterns of the VBM theory. “The number nine lines up with the center of the infinity symbol and it is from this center that the linear emanations we call Spirit emanate from the center of mass outwards. Spirit is the only thing in the universe that moves in a straight line. Spirit is the inertia aether that Einstein postulated. Spirit is what makes everything else warp and curve around it. The perfect number patterns are actually created by this Spirit energy. Without Spirit the universe would become destitute and void. Spirit flow is the source of all movement as well as the source of the non-decaying spin of the electron.” (quotations: www.markorodin.com)

Antonis Anisegos, Berlin 2010
www.enstase.com

Chris Dahlgren
SONG OF

The piece 'Song Of' (for String Orchestra and Improvising Quintet) is inspired by, and based upon, the first stanza of the poem 'Song of Myself' by the great nineteenth-century American poet, Walt Whitman. It goes: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass. My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air, Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their parents the same, I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin, Hoping to cease not till death. "Creeds and schools in abeyance, Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten, I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard, Nature without check with original energy." 'Song Of' is the latest in a series of my compositions, since 2003, to be based upon a particular text. It is said: "In the beginning there was the Word…" and I find an endless source of inspiration from the words of different authors. -RCD, Berlin, Nov. 2010

Chris Dahlgren, Berlin, 2010
www.chrisdahlgren.com

Nicolas Simion
RUGACIUNE (Prayer / Gebet)

I’ve noticed that in these orchestral pieces of mine, coming from another world, their semantics seems to be of a religious inspiration….Not that I’d be a ‘pious’…..as I’ve never been fond of the church institution , but that pure feeling, that smile through the tears, that eternal search of harmony attract me, take me closer to that infinite melody that can be heard through those lost notes in each of the works.

It doesn’t matter anymore how much of it is written and how much is improvised as long as the music sounds organic, it is unitary and sounds as if it’s talking to us….

It is the search for that balance, of that sense we try to give life and it is viewed through those (contradictory) entities of  ensemble and jazz combo that seem to fight as ING and Yang without any of them winnig. It is maybe our daily fight against the society and the social system that wakes up the feeling of existence inside ourselves.

I would like to dedicate this piece to my(darling) mother who offered(gave) me all her love and also to Maestro Nicolae Coman who has been and will always be my ‘spiritual father’.

Nicolas Simion, Köln 2010
www.nicolassimion.com