Composition database

This is the Composition Database of BMC, which includes information about works by composers that are either Hungarian or Hungarian by origin or live in Hungary.

Title of the work

da capo


Composer

Original / Hungarian title
da capo
Foreign language / English title
da capo
Subtitle
mit Fragmenten aus W. A. Mozarts Fragmenten - For cimbalom or marimba solo and ensemble
Year of composition
2014

Type
Ensemble
Number of players
16
Instrumentation
cimb. or marimba solo - fl. (anche picc., fla.), ob. (anche c.ing.), cl. in A, cl.b. (also in Es), fg. (anche cfg.) - cor., tr. in B, trb. (with quartventil), tuba - perc. (1 esec. - 2 crot., vibr., 2 ptto.sosp., wood bl., 3 cmpc., ptto.picc., 4 gong, campli., 2 bongo, bell tree, trg., vibra-slap, ptti. a 2, thundersheet) - strings: 2 vl., vla., vlc., cb.
Duration
17 min

Commissioned by
Remix Ensemble (Porto), Dialog Festival (Salzburg), New World Symphony (Miami)
Premiere information
6 May, 2014 Porto; Miklós Lukács (cimb.), Remix Ensemble, Péter Eötvös (cond.)
Publisher / Source
Editio Musica Budapest © 2014 (E-9 / Z. 14897)
Available here!
Remarks, other info
Composed: 2013 - 2014

The meaning of "da capo" is to return to the beginning and start again. A musical process, which reaches somewhere but does not end, beginning again and again in a different way, from different basic material throughout nine stages, evolves from the starting tune. The initial tunes come from Mozart´s notebooks. They are fragments, ideas for themes, which in their majority or not in the outlined form did not result in finished compositions. Péter Eötvös presents these tunes to listeners in a clearly recognisable way but he immediately develops and transforms them. Mozart´s themes are almost immediately remodelled in the chamber ensemble, the instruments of which were still unknown in the 18th century, and the musical journey is made especially adventurous in that the solo (whether played on the cimbalom or the marimba) is presented by a musical instrument which cannot have been used in the 18th century.

The work was composed in winter 2013-2014 at the invitation of Porto´s Casa da Musica, the Salzburg Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and New World Symphony, America´s Orchestral Academy (Miami). The cimbalom solo was inspired by the performance of Hungarian cimbalom player Miklós Lukács.