Listen to an excerpt of this piece on YouTube
Instrumentation
3 Flutes (3rd doubling Piccolo)
2 Oboes
3 Clarinets in Bb (3rd doubling bass clarinet)
3 Bassoons (3rd doubling double bassoon)
3 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in Bb
1 Tuba
Timpani
Percussion 1
Percussion 2
Solo Koto
Strings
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Varem, concerto for koto and orchestra.
Duration: 27 minutes.
In VAREM López composes the reflection of the feeling of expansion. This expansion moves slowly and stays static while the fragment develops in its own local dimension.
The title of this piece VAREM came about from López’s initial contact with Jitanjáfora style of poetry. This is a style that has no meaning but instead is a series of syllables that depicts the feelings of peacefulness, anxiety, tranquillity…”It all depends on what words you use to pile up together. It is like listening to a foreign language, you don’t understand the words but you understand what is implicit”. López liked the idea of transmitting feeling and intensity while at the same time being meaningless. The birth of the title VAREM was a made up word where López was guided by sound and not by meaning. López feels that language is imperfect: “One can say more with the eyes than with the words”. That is exactly what López likes about a conductor: “He is not talking but just using his eyes and body to express the music and the musicians understand this best. Music is an art of time, and the conductor manages the time”.
From silence back to silence
VAREM is a composition that emerges from silence and returns back into silence. It is based on the Hindu diagram SriYantra which represents the creation of the world.
This diagram is a series of nine triangles inscribed in a circle whose central point Bindhu is from which the whole image emerges. Being fascinated by this symbol of Hindu culture, López tries to translate this figure into music by superimposing a Cartesian grid upon the Sri Yantra.
This superimposed grid is 48x48 where the center of the superscribed circle is at coordinate 24,24. This center sound is a G which is the sound which emerges when the Sri Yantra is properly used in Hindu meditation in the chanting of the mantra ‘Ohmm’. Each coordinate of Lopez’s superimposed grid that intersects with the nine triangles of the Sri Yantra is given an associated note value. This note value has a particular location in the scale of 48 notes where the note #24 is always a G.
The solo instrument in this concerto is the koto which is a traditional Japanese instrument played in this world premiere by Makiko Goto. Koto is a kind of zither. It has been used as one of the main chamber instruments of Japanese traditional music style. The length of a koto is about 180cm. A traditional koto has 13 strings, being arched tautly across 13 movable bridges along the length of the instrument. Players make base pitches by moving these 13 bridges before playing. There are two ways of producing sounds on the koto. One is by plectrum, using finger picks, and the other is directly with the fingers which produces a more intimate sound. In VAREM López chooses to use three different kotos: the traditional 13 string koto (7th-8th century), the 17 string bass koto (circa 100 years old), and the 21 string koto (30 years old).
Structure
The structure of VAREM is distributed over six sections which flow seamlessly into each other. Each section is based on its own scale, its own manner of reading the Sri Yantra, and its own combination of koto instrumentation. The whole composition of VAREM is written in a time span of 24 minutes where the piece accelerates from the peaceful beginning and contracts in time at the end. The piece begins with the first section emerging from silence as the beginning of creation itself. The second section represents traditional Western music and the koto returns here as a solo instrument with the orchestra after the first opening single note G with which the piece begins. López composes this section for the 21 string koto, using the chromatic scale, and the ‘second series’ circular time. The third section becomes more active and rhythmical. In this section López uses the 17 string koto, the chromatic scale, and vertical time. The fourth section is based on traditional Japanese music and uses the 13 and 17 string kotos, the Hira Joshi scale in D, and vertical time. In the fifth section the koto is tuned in two different traditional tunings superimposed to clash with the orchestra. Here López uses the 13 string koto, the chromatic scale, and the ‘third series’ circular time. The last and sixth section is an accumulation of sections 2 through 5. Here he uses all the three kotos, the chromatic scale, and the Sri Yantra circular time. This last movement is a summery showing the whole graph of the Sri Yantra figure. Here at the end of VAREM all the sections are superimposed.
Ruth van Eck-Rotholz © 2004. Abridged.