Blue Edge

Item details

Description +
- Duration: 13 min.
  
  Blue Edge, Sonata No. 1 for 2 pianos Opus 22 (1994-95).
  Written with the support of the Danish Arts Council.
  
  This piece was also originally written for the Thorson and Thurber piano duo. Thorson described the piece thus:
  
  "A country-blues introduces the theme in its most basic form, a simple lament. The setting is the open (cotton) fields of the countryside, but this pastoral landscape gradually shifts to hectic cityscape where impressions follow each other so rapidly that the original, simple theme is swallowed up".
  
  The piece is an example of the use of music history as a structuring element. Although inspired by American blues, the Danish tone of Carl Nielsen (5th symphony) can be heard in the background, especially in the beginning ...
Instrumentation +
- Two Pianos
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About the composer +
- Kim Helweg began composing at the age of 13 and made his professional debut in 1974 with the composition "A Little Wind Quintet" at a concert for alternative music. The first published work by Kim Helweg, HVIDHEDEN OG STILHEDEN (The Whiteness and the Silence) from 1975, shows clearly which composers have influenced his formative years - namely John Cage and Penderecki. The composition is a blank page - has no duration, no instrumentation and no indication that tells us whether it is supposed to be regarded as a piece of music, a poem or anything else. Other pages came soon after, using "graphic notation" to be conceived freely as pictures of music or music of pictures. A "Tabular Rasa" as it might be and at the same time a very early musical turning point.
  
  The blank Page was followed by "real heavy sound". A chance encounter with American fusion-music drastically altered his course and led to an extended period of jazz/rock compositions culminating in two jazz/rock symphonies and the rock-operas Ulysses (1982) and Black Mass (1983).Compositions that connected the idioms of jazz and rock with contemporary classical composition technique. In 1985 and 1988 Kim Helweg won the 1st prize for compositions made for The Danish Radio Concert Orchestra.
  
  In 1986 his anti-musical" The Kreutzer Sonata" (based on Tolstoy and Beethoven) - with both music and lyrics by Kim Helweg - won the 3rd prize at the European Broadcast Union competition in Monaco after loud protests from the Italian and French jury, who wanted the work awarded with the 1st prize due to its originality.
  
  Since 1988 Kim Helweg has chiefly composed for classical ensembles, but still with a visible jazz/rock influence. The included element of improvisation which was previously left open for the musicians to create was now replaced by written music very often based on a serial row and micro rhythms. From this period the works Interference in the version for the Royal Danish Brass, Variations on Chick Corea's LA FIESTA performed by Thorson & Thurber Duo, and the America Fantasy for Safri Duo all achieved important international recognition.
Credits +
- Front cover graphics: Sune Kliborg Lynge (Kliborg Design)
  Photo: Henrik Stenberg
  Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark
  Copyright © Edition SVITZER
  www.editionsvitzer.com

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