Mikrokozmosz, as it is spelled originally, is of course the famous educational piano series composed by Béla Bartók between 1926 and 1939. This is where the idea of naming a new artistic agency is coming from. Long time friend, Béla Simon has started a new company based in Budapest by the name Microcosmos Agency, and I am truly happy and honored to share the roster with artists such as Andrea Rost, Arthur Fagen, Ödön Rácz, Péter Halász, Tamás Varga.
http://www.microcosmosartists.com
As for my own little mini-cosmos I am happy to report that I have completed a new chamber music piece commissioned by the Tsilumos Ensemble for the Salt New Music Festival and Symposium in Victoria, BC. The piece is called ‘From Left To Right’ and it is scored for five players (saxophone, viola, acoustic guitar, percussion and keyboard). Here are the program notes I have written.
RHYTHM, PITCH and SONIC QUALITIES, I mean nothing else. I could have given it the title: Music for Five, but I am not a minimalist composer. It could be called Sonata but then you’d think I am trying to ride the retro-classical wave. I could have titled this piece Quintet, but then who would care to listen? I always envied artists who could write a manifesto. I’m just not the type. Composing this piece is as close as I get to writing one.
This piece of music is not a statement. This piece of music has no program. This music does not want to be socially relevant. It’s not a deep-dive into my own psyche or into the collective unconscious.
This musical piece has no predetermined form or pre-fabricated building blocks. No fractals, no algorithms. No pop culture references. I even refuse to follow my own habits. No quotes, no musical allusions, no literally inspiration. Whatever your associations are they are your own.
I am 46 years old. I have been making music for 40 years. That should do it. I compose “from left to right”, one note after another. Form happens. Music is music is music. But there IS MUSIC, not just some attractive noise to accompany some visual attraction. That is important to me.
There is music:
RHYTHM, PITCH and SONIC QUALITIES,
my Mini-Manifesto if you wish.
Please, LISTEN!
Please, ENJOY!
If this is not quite my own Mikrokozmosz series, but a 19 minute long piece that I have immensely enjoyed composing. I am looking forward to the World Premiere at the end of August.
As promised on FaceBook let me write briefly about the new season of Ensemble UMZE. Since 2019-20 will be the first season of this Hungarian soloist-ensemble with me being the Artistic Director, I am truly happy to present 3 major concerts at the concert hall of the Budapest Music Center.
On September 13 Laszlo Tihanyi will conduct a program of pieces by Claude Vivier, Takemitsu and young Hungarian composers. The theme will be “Eastern Religion, Western Music”. Laszlo Sari, famous writer and Tibet-expert will be on stage with our musicians to share his thoughts with the audience. On January 17, as part of the Transparent Sound Festival, Balazs Horvath will be conducting a conversation concert comprised of music by female and male composers. Among other exciting and unusual things there will be an instrumental theater piece presented alongside with a beatboxer. Audience friendly interactive conversation, as it is always the case at this festival, will be a natural part of the presentation. On March 2020 I will be on the podium to conduct the World Premiere of my mono-concert-opera, The Transporters, based on a novel by Peter Esterhazy. In the first half of the program, to take the audience back to the times when The Transporters was written, we’ll be playing a two pieces from the early 80s. I am looking forward to Romantic Readings No.1 by Laszlo Vidovszky and to Laszlo Tihanyi’s The Silence of the Winds. In addition to these three concerts there will be a few interesting joint projects with the Peter Eötvös Foundation, including a concert at Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin.
Details of the program UMZE will be coming up before September on this website:
http://www.umze.hu
Ha nem is Bartók Mikrokozmosza, de az én saját bejáratú zenei majdnem-manifesztóm. A Tsilumos Ensemble megrendelésére elkészült 19 perces új kamarazenei művem a ‘Balról jobbra’, melynek bemutatója augusztus végén lesz a kanadai Victoriában. A fenti szöveg “RHYTHM, PITCH and SONIC QUALITIES, I mean nothing else…” a darab ismertetőszövege, és egyben (talán kissé paprikás) reakcióm is arra, hogy manapság 1) előbb kell megírni az ismertetőszöveget mint a darabot magát 2) amennyiben egy zenei mű nem reflektál valamilyen társadalmi vagy politikai problémára, akkor nincs is miről beszélni vele kapcsolatban 3) (még mindig) trend, hogy a zene csak az egyik, sokszor nem is legemlékezetesebb összetevője egy műnek, ami zenedarab esetében meglehetős hendikep, és hangok helyett vizuális, teátrális, irodalmi és egyéb effektekkel reméli(k) az áhított sikert elérni a szerző(k). A Tsilumos együttes minden koncertjét videón is rögzíti. Amint elérhető lesz a felvétel természetesen azonnal kiposztolom.
Örömmel jelentem be azt a hírt is, hogy mostantól az újonnan alakult Microcosmos menedzsment által (is) képviselt művész lettem, és büszkén osztozom Rost Andreával, Rácz Ödönnel, Halász Péterrel, Varga Tamással és további kiváló zenészekkel a Simon Béla által életrehívott ügynökség reprezentatív listáján.
http://www.microcosmosartists.com
