ANDERS HULTQVIST

Vinterträdgården – The Winter Garden

Recorded at Hemmesjö Church, Växjö 8–11 May 1995 and 21–22 November 1996.

Linear notes:

The Winter Garden was composed in 1993. The composer has described the piece as the introductory phase of an acoustic-temporal inquiry. The work is based on a spectral analysis of a clash of cymbals. “The Winter Garden has two main ideas: (1) the same numeric relations (3/4, 4/5, 6/5 etc.) are used as a base for deriving both the tonal (spectral) and the rhythmic material, and (2) the musical ‘gestures’ are inspired by, and derived from, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The title, Winter Garden, originated in the fact of such a garden often being a place where all four seasons coexist.” Three continuous sections are discernible in the Winter Garden: an introductory section, very energetic, characterised by superimposed tonal repetitions at varying speeds and sharp, distinct glissandi movements, a disjointed middle section with a kind of solo cadenza, and a quick finale, obviously a kind of metamorphosis of the first section, acoustically expansive with smacks of the bow, scraping sounds and ‘Bartok pizzicati’.

/Göran Bergendal