Medley

Background:

Earlier this year I composed a piece for my good friend Dan Barak. Dan is a PHANTASTIC trumpet player who graduated this year from NEC, (nowadays the first trumpet player for the Orchestre Philharmonique du Québec). If that's not enough, he is the absolute best whistler I ever encountered. His mother, Susan, commissioned the piece as a gift for his graduation, and Dan performed it on his final recital. I was very excited to take part in what I think is an ideal circle of creation: Susan, an art lover (and a musician as well) had an idea, a demand – a piece that will fit Dan's unique skills. She commissioned a piece from me, the composer. It was then performed by the virtuoso in front of the local community, in our case at NEC. For all those sophisticated composers who brag about "not selling ourselves to the audience", here is a case where the audience was more creative than the composer, requesting something I wouldn't have thought of myself, and initiating a rather unique musical event. Maybe we, the composers, are no more than human beings, even though our program notes tend to omit such dry details. Thank you Susan for this wonderful opportunity, and thank you Dan for engaging in this demanding project and doing it the best way possible!

The music:

I used two simple melodies as musical material for this piece. Both share a common length and are constructed from the same five notes (a pentatonic scale). However, they have different meters and musical characters: one is mellow and singing in 6/8 time, and the other is upbeat and dancing in 5/8 time. Since the melodies share the same notes and length, I can seamlessly crossfade between them. This is done by gradually adding notes from the second melody over the first one, creating a mess that is the two being played at the same time. Then the first melody gradually fades out as more and more notes of it are omitted. I didn't continue this process all the way through to the point when the second melody is heard alone, because I felt it sounded a little technical. Instead, I let the new musical material created from various combinations of the two melodies lead me forward, it had enough momentum to construct the piece all the way through.

After a few revisions, rehearsals, and one public performance, we were finally ready to record, and Dan did an amazing job as always. I welcome you all to listen to the result and share your impressions with me!