A Bright Kind Of High

A Bright Kind Of High (1996) for Chamber Ensemble and Orchestra.

A Bright Kind Of High is written for a virtuos ensemble (9 soloists) and ’back-up orchestra’. The piece could also beperformed by the ensemble alone.

Programme note

'A Bright Kind of High' was commissioned for a particular occasion, namely for the concert where the Storstrøms Ensemble was awarded thePrize of the Music Critic Circle.

The prize is normally given to a musician who receives it at a concert with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra and who then plays or sings with the orchestra. The ensemble wanted tokeepup this tradition and asked me to compose a short work for nine musicians and orchestra. I choose to write a piece for virtuos ensemble and ’back-up orchestra’ which could also be performed by the ensemble alone. Thework, then, exists in two versions, one with and one without symphony orchestra.

The music is built up around five soloistic passages. There is a duo for flute and basson with accompaniment, a piano solo, a duo fortrumpet and harp, a clarinet solo and a trio for the strings. The soli are woven into a quickly and constantly ascending music, which has a certain relationship with a small piano piece by Robert Schumann, ’Ritter vomSteckenpferd’. This is to be heard very clearly during the work, if one knows Schumann’s piece. The title of my piece has no proper meaning outside context. It can be read as a kind of rewriting of ’feeling high,brightly’, and both this and the music gets me to think of champagne.

Niels Marthinsen