Yo Picasso (1997) for clarinet, viola, cello and piano
Instant Download
Share
Details
- Instruments
- Ensembles
- Composers
- Series
- ArrangeMe
- Formats
- Item Types
- Levels
- Usages
Description
SKU: A0.869277
Composed by Thomas Oboe Lee. 20th Century,Classical,Contemporary,Jazz,Romantic Period. Score and parts. With withdrawn, sullen, and deliriously drunk. 26 pages. Thomas Oboe Lee #30881. Published by Thomas Oboe Lee (A0.869277).Program note.
When Nancy Braithwaite Wiersdma and the Arto Ensemble asked me to write a piece for their 1997-98 season, I immediately thought the name "Arto" could be the source of some musical ideas for the piece. Music inspired by the visual art is not something new. Mussorgsky composed his infamous "Pictures at an Exhibition" after viewing a memorial exhibition of paintings and drawings by Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann. Gunther Schuller, my teacher and mentor, composed one of his most memorable orchestral pieces entitled, "Six Studies on Themes by Paul Klee."
Last spring as I was searching for ideas for this composition, I came upon a two-volume book on Picasso. In looking through these volumes I discovered that his work is very evocative of mood, atmosphere and drama. I thought I could easily translate into music what he does with color, harmony and texture.
The instrumentation of the "Arto" - Bb clarinet, viola, cello, and piano, which is essentially dark and low - also seems to reflect the moody, melancholic, and brooding atmosphere of Picasso's work. Conveniently, Picasso’s work falls into very distinctive periods which allows me to conjure up a series of movements which mirrors these stylistic changes in his career.
The movements are:
I. For that haunting La buveuse d'absinthe or "The Absinthe Drinker" (Paris, 1901) from the Blue Period, some atmospheric music that could be described as withdrawn, sullen, and deliriously drunk.
II. From the Rose Period, Famille d'acrobates avec singe or "The Acrobat's Family with a Monkey" (Paris, 1905) inspired a crazy waltz that could have been played by a circus band. The cascading falling runs are for the "Monkey" ...
III. Les Demoiselles D'Avignon (Paris, 1907) inspired some sensuous, sexy, dreamy "bordello" music from way, ... way down south of the border.
IV. Cubism is visual art going ultra-modern, intellectual and abstract. For Bouteille de Bass, clarinette, guitare, violon, journal, as de trèfle or "Bottle of Bass, Clarinet, Guitar, Violin, Newspaper, Ace of Clubs" (Paris, 1913) an "abstract" movement punctuated by disjointed riffs and slam-dunks for Bb clarinet, viola and piano against a cello walking a jazz bass-line that refuses to join in ...
V. Art and politics finally join hands in the Picasso masterpiece, Guernica (Paris, 1937). What could be more appropriate than a little martial music that is "macho," brutal and relentlessly brutal?
NB: This is a transposed score.
Audio link: https://thomasoboelee.bandcamp.com/album/yo-picasso-1997
Video link: https://youtu.be/GtJNs_yYU9Q
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard’s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.
Digital Downloads are downloadable sheet music files that can be viewed directly on your computer, tablet or mobile device. Once you download your digital sheet music, you can view and print it at home, school, or anywhere you want to make music, and you don’t have to be connected to the internet. Just purchase, download and play!
PLEASE NOTE: Your Digital Download will have a watermark at the bottom of each page that will include your name, purchase date and number of copies purchased. You are only authorized to print the number of copies that you have purchased. You may not digitally distribute or print more copies than purchased for use (i.e., you may not print or digitally distribute individual copies to friends or students).