Orchestra Compositions by Gabriele Proy (Austria)
(Flute, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns and String Orchestra)
Adagio maestoso
In Memoriam Barbara Prammer.
“The Japanese word ‘Ma’間means space but it also suggests an interval. It is a concept that has extended into every aspect of Japanese life and one in which the “intervals” or the natural distance between things play an important role. Thus silence belongs to sound, for without silence sound would have no meaning, sound is only made possible by silence. My composition for orchestra ‘Ma’ is concerned with tonal spaces and gaps, with sound and silence.
An important role in my piece is played by the two horns. They start the piece, develop a recurring rhythmic motif that progresses relentlessly before giving way to a reflective solo for flute. Contrapunctual dialogues between the horns surrounded by string tremolos lead to two dense canon passages featuring all the instruments. The horn motif returns again as a warning and glides into a reminiscence of the horn dialogues before, with swelling horn and string passages, it finally brings the piece to an end with three furious closing notes.
Just like my variations for orchestra ‘Forelle’ that received its world premiere this year in Charlotte in the USA performed by the Wiener Concert Verein Orchestra under Philippe Entremont, my new orchestral work ‘Ma’ was commissioned by the Wiener Concert-Verein, the orchestra and its manager Mira Weihs. The realisation of the new composition was made possible by the award of the Austrian Federal Chancellery’ Composition Prize 2014. While I was working on ‘Ma’, the First Speaker of the Austrian Parliament Barbara Prammer died. My new orchestral work is dedicated to her in memoriam.”
Ma
for Orchestra (2014)(Flute, 2 Oboes, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns and String Orchestra)
Adagio maestoso
In Memoriam Barbara Prammer.
“The Japanese word ‘Ma’間means space but it also suggests an interval. It is a concept that has extended into every aspect of Japanese life and one in which the “intervals” or the natural distance between things play an important role. Thus silence belongs to sound, for without silence sound would have no meaning, sound is only made possible by silence. My composition for orchestra ‘Ma’ is concerned with tonal spaces and gaps, with sound and silence.
An important role in my piece is played by the two horns. They start the piece, develop a recurring rhythmic motif that progresses relentlessly before giving way to a reflective solo for flute. Contrapunctual dialogues between the horns surrounded by string tremolos lead to two dense canon passages featuring all the instruments. The horn motif returns again as a warning and glides into a reminiscence of the horn dialogues before, with swelling horn and string passages, it finally brings the piece to an end with three furious closing notes.
Just like my variations for orchestra ‘Forelle’ that received its world premiere this year in Charlotte in the USA performed by the Wiener Concert Verein Orchestra under Philippe Entremont, my new orchestral work ‘Ma’ was commissioned by the Wiener Concert-Verein, the orchestra and its manager Mira Weihs. The realisation of the new composition was made possible by the award of the Austrian Federal Chancellery’ Composition Prize 2014. While I was working on ‘Ma’, the First Speaker of the Austrian Parliament Barbara Prammer died. My new orchestral work is dedicated to her in memoriam.”
(Gabriele Proy, Programme Notes, World Premiere on 6 December 2014, Musikverein Vienna)
In 2014 the composer Gabriele Proy was appointed Composer-in-Residence of the Wiener Concert-Verein, the chamber orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker, and commissioned to write the two works for orchestra ‘Forelle” and “Ma”.
The Wiener Concert-Verein Orchestra conducted by Philipp Morard gave “Ma” by Gabriele Proy its world premiere on 6 December 2014 to great acclaim in the Brahms-Saal of the prestigious Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.
“Ma” is dedicated to the Wiener Concert Verein and its manager Mira Weihs as well as in memoriam to the First Speaker of the Austrian Parliament, Barbara Prammer, who died in 2014.
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