Playground
In correlation with a concert in Lund, Sweden, Ensemble Controverse
gave a concert with some of my pieces.
Playground was composed for Annette & George Fischer after this
meeting.
Playground consists of three short character pieces for the little
odd instrumentation, clarinet and vibraphone.
The music takes off with an imitation game: Cat-following-mouse
where the two instruments imitates, mirrors and runs from each
other in different manners. This game is held in a comic and
relaxed spirit. In the second piece, ”The hunting” the
chase becomes more serious and the sound surface more fragile and a
little threatening, perhaps.
However this seriousness soon turns around to the first playful
themes found in the first part of the composition.
At last you’ll meet the strange title
”Strutgubbe” which literally means – old man in a
cone -. The meaning of the word has to do with animated cartoon
figures. The straight, simple drawing lines that the animation
artist use, creates a ”strutgubbe”.
The association isn’t far to Tom & Jerry (Cat and Mouse)
These animated slapsticks are entertaining, quick and quite
virtuoso in their appearance. So in a way Playground can be
listened to as if it was an animated short movie.
A swirling clarinet passage could symbolize a swirling event on the
movie screen.