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Work


Sgraffito

for chamber orchestra

Year:  2010 Instrumentation:  2*2*2*2; 2230; 2 perc.; strings (8.6.5.4.2) | (Perc: xylophone, 5 temple blocks, 2 small bongos, 2 congas, small maracas, 2 concert bass drums, 2 flexatones, 2 resonant metal plates, a bowl of small, resonant pebbles)

Year:  2010
Instrumentation  2*2*2*2; 2230; 2 perc.; str...

Composer:   Michael Norris

Films, Audio & Samples

Michael Norris: Sgraffito -...

External video
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Michael Norris: Sgraffito g...

External video
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Upbeat interview with Micha...

Embedded audio
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Sample Score

Sample: Pages 1 - 8 of score

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Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

In visual arts, the technique of sgraffito is the deliberate scratching of one layer of paint or plaster to reveal the underlying layer. Although used in the Renaissance, this technique was developed in the twentieth century most notably by American artist Cy Twombly. While this orchestral work does not attempt to exactly translate Twombly’s canvases into sound, it does take as a point of departure some of the shape and motion of the foregrounded “scratchings” juxtaposed against a more static, colour-field background. There is also an increasing (but unrequited) desire of the music to escape the inexpressive “frame” of background harmonies and erupt into something altogether more rhapsodic.


Commissioned note

Commissioned by SWR (Sudwestdeutsche Rundfunk)


Performance history