One Lingering Quasar: for Flute and Piano

One Lingering Quasar (2016) was created with the pretense to investigate various foreign pitch vocabularies. This piece fuses the two different vocabularies of quintal harmony and the melodic enigmatic scale. A quasar is a massive and extremely remote celestial object that emits an exceptionally large amount of energy. The idea deep space is the source of the piece’s overall mood and character: slow; unmoving and immovable. The dark, strong harmonic tones delivered by the piano anchor the irregular melodic in the flute. As these anchors become more harmonically active, the texture slowly gains momentum. This is at a glacial pace, similar to how an enormous quasar gently wanders through the cosmos. After this momentum is achieved, it is not carried through, but abandoned mid-flight, not allowing the piece to achieve any climax. Conversely, One Lingering Quasar continues to slowly lose this energy, just as how in space the gradual loss of energy continues ad infinitum. After the recapitulation of the modified sonata form is completed, the quasar loses all its energy, and is lost to space. The piece concludes with the same harmonic anchors with which it began, yet with all their energy emitted completely.

Performance:
Sakhile Humbane (Flute)
Conrad Asman (Piano)
Composition II Recital. C7; SACM.
November 2017

Unknown album (2017/11/15 00:30:29)

One Lingering Quasar

The music of composer Conrad Asman (b. 1996) has gained international recognition as being “innovative and cutting edge” (Chorosynthesis) and spans a wide emotional range from “heart-rending” (The Esoterics), to “fun and festive” (Creative Feel). His works have been performed in Africa, Asia, Europe and America in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the Jinji Lake Concert Arena. Engagements with ensembles such as the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Esoterics singers, the CHROMA ensemble and the Cape Town Youth Choir have led to his work winning multiple major awards, scholarships and commissions worldwide.