Dedicated to my beloved grandmother and her lament.

If We Had Not Get Divided...(...لا تصير غياب جمعتنا)

Movements (Connected)
I-Wordplay
II-Irony
----Interlude----
III-Self Mockery
IV- Spoiled Joke
----Interlude----
V-Inside Joke

The aspiration of this piece is to reflect humorous and theatrical parodies of Frédéric Chopin’s famous Ballade no. 1 in five individual sections. There is a circulating improvisational character in the piece. This character originates from elements of humour and the concept of joke. All humorous elements are accumulated with new ones, just like in a series of jokes that develop when two people are joking with each other and building up the pure idea of joke. This idea is represented within each unique sections of the piece separately.
The piece is neither a recomposition, nor a deconstruction. Just like in hip-hop culture, cutting some bits of a previously composed music, repositioning and filtering various passages, this piece quotates four different themes of Frédéric Chopin’s G minor Ballade and constructs a new piece with them, defamiliarizing the source and generating new meanings.

Parodies of a Ballade

This piece is composed for the “Re-imagining Brandenburg Concertos” Project by Klasik Keyifler ensemble (Turkey)
The main goal of the commission was to celebrate the  300th year of Brandenburg Concertos of J. S. Bach. My task was using the same instrumentation with the 2nd Brandenburg Concerto. So the piece contains the exuberant aura of the Brandenburg Concertos. Some stylistic references and some excerpts from the 2nd Brandenburg Concerto are also used. Therefore, humorous elements and filtrating techniques are combined with the inspirations of Brandenburg Concertos in a contemporary classical style.

Konçerto Pera

This piece was inspired by Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi's quotation; create like a god, command like a king, work like a slave." Brancusi's modern and minimalist sculptural style was also a source of inspiration for me. However, I did not intend to create a minimalist expression but aimed to convey Brancusi's style from my perspective.

In general, the piece consists of an extended crescendo and diminuendo respectively. As Iannis Xenakis notes, the terms crescendo and diminuendo do not simply refer to dynamics; they are applicable to increases and decreases in any parameter. In this piece, in addition to the prelude and postlude, we perceive a crescendo and diminuendo in the intensity of the instrumental build-up. The piece is constructed with transitional sections connected to each other through "injections" of gradual transitions of various parameters.

Brancusi (for string orchestra)

Akın Kilis was born on June 13 1998 in Adana/Turkey. In 2016, he became a composition student at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul/Turkey. His works performed in the 10th and 11th Voyage of Sound Young Composers Festival, İstanbul (2017-2018) Until today he attended master-classes/seminars of Mark Andre, Shih-Hui Chen, Ken Ueno, Hideki Kozakura, Michael Edward Edgerton, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Stephan Lienenkamper, Kamran İnce, Onur Türkmen, Yiğit Aydın, Mahir Cetiz, In 018, he received an invitation from Czech Republic for The Second Everlasting Hope: Gustav Mahler & Terezin Composers Festival and he compose an ensemble piece "Stepwise to the Tenebrous Aura" as a commission piece from this festival. He studied composition with Gordon Kampe and studied Analyze with Alexander Schubert at Hfmt Hamburg (erasmus). He continues his composition studies with Özkan Manav at the same university in Turkey (Master). On 26th of July, his piece “Parodies of a Ballade” is performed by Hollanda based Ensemble Oerknal in the scope of İstanbul Bilgi University New Music Festival. On 27th June, his piece “If We Had Not Get Divided” was one of the five finalist and got honorable mention of 4th Concorso Internazionale Di Compozione “Appasionato Ensemble”. He got a commission for 300th year Celebration of Brandenburg Concertos from ensemble Klasik Keyifler, one of Turkey's best ensembles. His commission piece “Konçerto Pera” was performed at CRR concert hall on 15th of November, in Istanbul/Turkey. On 20th November, he won the 3rd prize of international Balsys Composition Competion in Lithuania with his string orchestra “Brancusi”. On  1st April, he won the 3rd awards of Gilgamesh Composition Competition in USA. His wind quintet “Insomnia” has performed on 1 May by Anatolian Wind Quintet in the scope of 13th Voyage of Sound Young Composers Festival. He won the 1st prize of 4th International Composition Competition New Music Generation in Kazakhistan. He is continuing his studies at Kunstuniversitat Graz with Klaus Lang as an erasmus student and attending seminars and one to one lessons of Beat Furrer, Clemens Gadenstätter and Franck Bedrossian. He thanks Istanbul Composers Collective, Mithatcan Öcal and Emircan Pehlivan.

Akın Kilis

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