Nov. 20, 2023 / AASSM Concert Hall 8:00 pm

Duo Gross I Schouten

Dyssynchrony & Bee Sage

Rozalie Hirs 

Bee Sage (2023)

Can Karacadağlı 

Burlesque (2023) 

Canberk Duman 

Extended Translation 3a (2023) 

Seung-Won Oh 

Modular 3 for 2 (2022)

Tolga Tüzün 

Dyssynchrony (2023)

Kaija Saariaho 

Oi Kuu (1992)

Program Notes

Composed in 2023 the title of Rozalie Hirs’s work Bee Sage refers to white sage (salvia apiana), bee sage or sacred sage, a medicinal plant among Indians, traditionally used to cleanse the atmosphere of bad influences. It is also a protective plant. Incidentally, the title is also a play on words with ‘be sage’, i.e. a call to wisdom and truthfulness. Can Karacadağlı’s Burlesque can be considered as a mimicking game, an increasingly annoying one, between two characters; like a spat. The piece is built upon the aural/timbral similarities between bass clarinet and cello, aiming to blend them to the point that they are unrecognizable. The work was premiered at Gaudeamus Festival in Utrecht. Canberk Duman’s Extended Translation 3a, is commissioned by New Music Days İzmir. In the program notes the composer writes the following:”Extended Translation 3a is the most recent piece of the set “Translative Music”, which developed out of a research project I have been working on for about two years. Among the music resulting from this project, which can be summarised under the title “textural inferences within-from true monophony”, Extended Translation 3a already stands out in terms of the material it deals with. During the creation process, I was looking for an answer to the question of what kind of a step-by-step development course can be followed when adapting a monophonic musical unit -which already contains clear tonal references and is located in an unusually low register- to a polyphonic-heterophonic texture in time. The piece was performed for the first time in Utrecht by Duo Gross/Schouten.

The program continues with Seung-Won Oh’s Modular 3 for 2 is a tranquil work where the performers play individual and in the same time with the awareness of the other and Tolga Tüzün’s Dyssynchrony— a neurological condition wherein auditory stimuli are not processed synchronously. The program concludes with With Kaija Saariaho’s Oi Kuu — means ‘oh moon’. Duo Schouten / Gross  perform this piece as an ode to this very special grande dame of the contemporary music, one of the strongest composers of our time. Except for the duo by Saariaho, all pieces on this program are dedicated to the duo.