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.

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Title of the work

Alice Études

Composer
Vajda Gergely
Original / Hungarian title
Alice Études
Foreign language / English title
Alice Études
Subtitle
For clarinet and string quartet
Dedication
to the Farallon Quintet
Year of composition
2016
Type
Chamber Music
Number of players
5
Instrumentation
cl. - strings: vl. 1, vl.a, vla., vlc.
Duration
27 min
Movements, parts
1. Down the Rabbit Hole - (Homage to György Ligeti)
2. The Pool of Tears - (Homage to David Del Tredici)
3. A Mad Tea Party
4. Through the Looking Glass (Homage to Unsuk Chin)
5. Wool and Water
6. Shaking Shaking (On a Taylor Swift song)
7. Waking (Homage to Tom Waits)
Premiere information
13 January 2017, Old First Church, San Francisco; Farallon Quintet: Natalie Parker (cl.), Dan Flanagan (vl.), Matthew Oshida (vl.), Elizabeth Prior (vla.), Jonah Kim (vlc.)
Publisher / Source
Universal Music Publishing Editio Musica Budapest © 2017, Z. 15076
Available here!
Recordings
BMC CD 274, 2018 - Gábor Varga (cl.), Nathan Giem (vl.), Gergely Popa (vl.), Tamás Cs. Nagy (vla.), Árpád Amirás (vlc.) Gergely Vajda (cond.)
Remarks, other info
"Each movement is inspired by a quote from Lewis Carroll’s books: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Through The Looking Glass’. From scenes like experiencing time in slow pace while falling really fast, through the combinatorics problem of changing seats around a circular table while having no tea in your cups, to the challenge of living backwards and remembering forwards, I wanted to create my own musical Alice World. All movements deal with one, two or tops three musical ideas making the composition a collection of étude-like pieces. The last of the seven études called ‘Waking’ is a variation on the first one entitled ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ creating a frame to this dream world of my clarinet quintet. Three movements are dedicated to three classical-contemporary composers whose oeuvres were heavily influenced by these two books of Carroll as well: György Liget, David del Tredici and Unsuk Chin. As an inclusive and somewhat provocative gesture I composed my own take on a song by Taylor Swift in the movement ‘Shaking’. We all coexist in Wonderland regardless of style and genre.‘Alice’ connects us all."
 

Recordings

Title Publisher
Gergely Vajda: Clarinet Symphony BMC Records