Sinister Beauty (2011)

for oboe, Bb clarinet, bassoon, horn in F, violin, viola, cello and double-bass.

duration: 7′ 00”

Program Note

‘Sinister Beauty was inspired from a series of still photographs by photographer Ilia Uzunoski. The piece explores music techniques from traditional Macedonian music in juxtaposition with jazz chords influenced from film composer Michael Giacchino’s filmscore for The Incredibles (2004). It also operates with  Bernard Herrmann harmonic chordal structures such minor-major seventh chords. In this piece I draw on Macedonian ornaments that I derived from the kaval (traditional Macedonian wind instrument). These include use of multiple trills, frenetic melodic passages and long sustained notes that serve as drones. I recontexutualise the kaval techniques and implement them on western woodwind and string instruments to enrich the music with a Macedonian colour resonance (that is part of everyday Macedonian folk music). And furthermore, to explore the kaval sound-world in a octet ensemble within a Macedonian/jazz/Herrmann context.