Louis Andriessen (1939-2021)
Symphony for open strings (1978)
pour douze instruments à cordes solistes
- General information
-
Composition date :
1978
- Duration : 25 mn
- Editor : Boosey & Hawkes
-
Composition date :
1978
- Type
- Instrumental ensemble music [Ensemble à cordes famille complète]
- 5 violins, 2 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses
Creation information
-
Date :
1978
Location :Pays-Bas, la Haye, Conservatoire Royal.
Program note
The open-string orchestra consists of twelve soloists. The ensemble has all the chromatic tones over a range of nearly four octaves at its disposal. But for a melody of four consecutive tones four players are required.
The work was written for a group of string players at the Conservatory, a kind of teaching project for ensemble playing and counting.
As regards the composition technique, I employed symphonic procedures: recurring motives, a developing musical motion, and something like a recapitulation. I had not used techniques like these since the fifties, and they could be my answer to the neo-romantic movement: young composers writing once again for the symphonic orchestra. In this sense the Symphony is ambiguous, using ‘symphonic’ techniques while an open-string orchestra will never sound like a real symphony orchestra.
This work has benefited from that discrepancy – in other words, for a symphony orchestra I would have written a different work.
Louis Andriessen.