My work ‘Infinitely ethereal’ for solo Bassoon (2018) will be premiered by the amazing bassoonist Rebekah Heller (International Contemporary Ensemble ICE) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music next Friday, October 26th.
This piece is inspired by a fragment of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway: “and lit in him such a fire as burns only once in a lifetime, without heat, flickering a red gold flame infinitely ethereal and insubstantial […].”
The way in which she describes that volatile condition made me think about the constant interaction of uncontrolled and unexpected forces in a wide range of possibilities. Consequently, I approached the low register and the physical experience of the corporeal attributes of the instrument (size, shape, material) as images of the strength and power of such a passion. Also, I followed the idea of fragility, the flickering flame, to approach ethereal qualities of the bassoon’s sound through diverse techniques that allowed me to work on the complexity of its movement and transformation to create unstable and unique timbres.
A recording of the piece performed by Rebekah Heller is available here!
You can buy the score here!
MICHELE ABONDANO 