Album ČRNA LUKNJA - TASF IN BOŠTJAN GOMBAČ

ENGLISH:

The name of this composition for the Slovenian Philharmonic Brass Ensemble, which came about in 2017 upon the initiative of the trumpet player Franc Kosem and the multi-instrumentalist Boštjan Gombač, was, so-to-speak, self-evident. It was conceived as the principal composition of the concert program, with its opening and closing parts bracketing the works of other composers. In physics, the gravitational force of a black hole will swallow up everything in the vicinity, whereas ours is a metaphorical black hole, bringing together certain more or less recognisable musical concepts, with the selected compositions of the other composers even “falling into it”. A Black Hole functions as the link between the compositions on the concert programme: it opens and closes the entire event by functioning like a surface with a “hole” into which the compositions of Bach and Mozart arranged by Blaž Pucihar are placed. Although music is temporally linear, here the closing part of the composition was conceived three-dimensionally, i.e. as the continuation of the opening composition. In addition to a number of flutes from the jungles of Brazil, a special place in A Black Hole was given to the tidldibab flute, a copy of the Palaeolithic flute found at the Slovene archaeological site of Divje Babe. In the opinion of numerous international experts, it is the world’s oldest musical instrument. The acoustic characteristics of this small bone flute are outstanding and it offers a range of different playing techniques. The flute is archaic and extremely contemporary at the same time, which makes it timeless.

Žiga Stanič, March 2019

Besides offering opportunities for improvisation, Bach’s music is a perpetual source of ideas for arrangements. Therefore, I was delighted to attempt a new version of Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto, which Boštjan Gombač and I had performed in the past with the “Bachology Quartet”. The current arrangement was a great challenge for me, especially in striving to balance the relationship between the clarinet and the rich musicality of the brass ensemble as I wished to employ the possibilities of both to the greatest extent.

I envisaged Movement Two of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto as a three-part composition (Mozart-Swing-Mozart). The classical-sounding introductory theme in clarinet is enriched by the chords of the brass ensemble. In the second part of the Movement I transformed the ternary rhythm into a binary rhythm and thus created the basis for a swing rhythm, which moved Mozart into a different acoustic sphere. This flow is interrupted by a short clarinet cadence, followed by Gombač whistling the opening theme; however, the entire arrangement still sounds like Mozart.

Blaž Pucihar, March 2019

Performers

Boštjan Gombač, clarinet, tidldibab, and flutes

The Slovenian Philharmonic Brass Ensemble

Franc Kosem, trumpet and flugelhorn

Tibor Kerekeš, trumpet

Blaž Avbar, trumpet

Dejan Glamočak, trumpet

Jože Rošer, horn

Robert Prednik, horn

Domen Jeraša, trombone

Žan Tkalec, trombone