Work Information
Avner Dorman : Azerbaijani Dance (for orchestra)
Programme Note
Premiere:October 6, 2010 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta, conductor Jerusalem, Israel Related works: Azerbaijani Dance (for piano) Azerbaijani Dance (for orchestra)Composer's Note: Azerbaijani Dance is inspired by a traditional Azerbaijani melody. I use its basic contour and restructure it following principles of Turkish and Central Asian music – most importantly, the concept of alternating beat lengths. Harmonically, the piece is mostly quartal and secondal, in line with the choral tradition of the region. I aim to preserve other traditional elements of Azerbaijani and Middle-Eastern music by incorporating quarter tones, Middle-Eastern percussion instruments, and extended techniques that transform western instruments into their non-western counterparts (most obvious is the imitation of the Kanun by playing inside the piano with drumsticks). -- Avner Dorman
Reviews
-
The program opened with the young Israeli composer Avner Dorman’s new orchestral arrangement of his Azerbaijani Dance, originally a piano work. Vivacious and appealing in its initial form, Mr. Dorman’s piece was transformed here into an exuberant display of vibrant hues and mottled quarter-tones, its propulsive odd-metered rhythms garnished with brilliant metallic percussion and crafty effects.
Steve Smith, New York Times, 23/02/2011
-
The second piece by Avner Dorman, Azerbaijani Dance, based on Azerbaijanin melodies, is a wild rhythmic celebration which combines various percussion instruments, central Asian rhythms and middle-eastern scales with various quarter tones which are very different from the western wwll-tempered scales. It seems like the audience's ears are ready now for this complex tonality and indeed the work was received with sustained applause
Dvora Shapira Namir, Tel-Aviv Journalists Association, 18/10/2010
|
|
|
|