COMPOSITIONS / CHAMBER / MECCANICA (2019)

CHAMBER

Meccanica (2019)

For piccolo and piano

  • 7 min
  • Donemus Publishing
  • July, 2019

MECCANICA is inspired by both the kinetic sculptures of Jean Tinguely as the ‘Strandbeesten’ by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. The piccolo and the piano are intertwined in a musical game of transferring ‘musical kinetic’ energy, from ‘linear’ to ‘circular’ rhythmic and melodic movements. But, just as the sculptures by Theo Jansen, never in a direct straight line. The piece sometimes stops, turns and feels clunky. Both the piccolo and piano can sometimes sound as one instrument in unison or can sound like two or even more separate instruments using different colours and playing techniques in counterpoint. The poetry is found between the ‘mechanics’ of the piece, when linear and circular movements together suddenly sound strikingly emotional.

First performance

Ensemble Norrbotten NEO
Conductor Baldur Brönniman

General information

Instrumentation Piccolo and Piano
Commissioned by Dutch Piccolo Project
Written for Ilonka Kolthof & Ralph van Raat

“Jan-Peter de Graaff, in his intriguing jerk-piece Meccanica, inspired by Jean Tinguely and the ‘strandbeesten’ of Theo Jansen, grounds the duo into a contumacious playful sabotage course of melodic and mechanical-contrapuntic movements. What in the transcending opening gestures evaporates as mist soon comes down as heavy rain. This is not reconstruction, this is research. Call it land clamation. The chance has grown that a mouse will give birth to a lion.”

DE GROENE AMSTERDAMMER
Bas van Putten

CD now available!

Meccanica (2019)

For this album, I chose six compositions written for the ‘classical’ combination of piccolo and piano, highlighting the piccolo in a wide variety of different guises.

Performed by: Ilonka Kolthof & Ralph van Raat.

Recorded by: TRPTK (TTK 0044)

ORDER CD

Preview the Score

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GET THE FULL SCORE

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