Twilight Garden

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Description +
- Duration: 5 min.
  
  A garden in nightfall breathes tranquility and reflection, but also mystery. White, red and gold slowly becomes green, blue and black. The harmony in Twilight Garden is a dim shadow of my other works Helios and Blue Memories.
  
  When I wrote Blue Memories a couple of years ago, I chose an enamel painting by Swedish artist, Bengt Berglund from late 60's as cover for the work. This painting I chose is part of a series of other enamel paintings by Berglund. For a few years now, I have been thinking of writing music for the remaining paintings in the series.
  
  Helios, Twilight Garden and Blue Memories are related to each other in terms of harmony, rhythm and character. The three pieces are written as standalone pieces, however the three pieces works well together as one substantial piece with several movements in it.
Instrumentation +
- Marimba
Watch+
- Performed by Daniel Berg:
About the composer +
- Daniel Berg is a Swedish composer, musician, and professor in classical percussion at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and at the Academy of music and drama in Gothenburg.
  
  In his passion to promote the marimba as a solo- and chamber music instrument, Daniel has worked intimately with a number of composers who have written original music for the instrument. This includes more than 300 world premier for solo and chamber works. Daniel Berg is a marimba artist of Bergerault and Elite Mallets.
  
  As a composer Daniel has written a lot for solo marimba like Mistral (for Michael Burritt), Phoenix (for Robert van Sice) and Yán Jiâng (for the Taiwan World Percussion Competition). His music for percussion ensemble have been appreciated and often performed like Kroumata (for sextet) and Arctic Nights (for quintet) - all published by Edition Svitzer.
Reviews +
- Review (Percussive Notes, July 2014)
  
  Prominent European marimbist and composer Daniel Berg has written a series of marimba solos based on enamel paintings by Swedish artist Bengt Berglund. “Twilight Garden” follows two additional solo marimba works, “Helios” and “Blue Memories,” that make up this series. This new addition falls in line with many of Berg’s other solo marimba works in that they are decidedly idiomatic and contain a particular sense of musical simplicity. The piece requires a five-octave marimba; however, in the performance notes, the composer suggests transposition options for performers that only have access to smaller instruments (by taking two sections up an octave).
  
  Suitable for developing players, “Twilight Garden” is a brief piece with two primary sections. The opening is marked “free tempo” and features a sequence of sustained double vertical strokes between each hand. As this section develops, Berg introduces a series of linear ornaments that occur between octaves in the right hand. The second section begins at 60 bpm and accelerates to 132 bpm over four bars. This section, titled “Wave-like with a little rubato,” is characterized by faster running sixteenth notes that are repetitive and lay well on the instrument. The piece ends with a recapitulation of the material found at the outset of the work. Given the brevity of the piece, it might pair well as a suite with other works inspired by Berglund’s artwork.
  
  —Thad Anderson
Credits +
- Front Cover graphics and layout: Ronni Kot Wenzell
  Enamel painting: Bengt Berglund
  Engraving: Johan Svitzer
  Printed in Copenhagen, Denmark
  Copyright © Edition SVITZER
  www.editionsvitzer.com

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