composed by Henryk Golden (2019-22)

performed in the Ensemble Zaal of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam March 24th 2022

Carmina Bartual Martínez - Oboe
 
Jaime Peña Martínez – Clarinet in B flat
 
Nonthapat Chaiviratnukul – Alto saxophone
 
The viking TubaSigurd – Tuba

Social Music for oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone and tuba

performed by the Bergamot Quartet in Averill Park, New York.
June 2023 at Arts, Letters and Numbers.

The piece is divided into three sections which are all to be played attacca. The title of the piece “Welcome to the Petting Zoo” is based on the German word for string instrument (Streichinstrumente), which directly translates as bow instruments, but the verb within the noun: “Streichen” (~to bow or to paint) is very similar to the verb “streicheln” which means to pet, which is made reference to in the title.

The first movement is titled: “Zuerst, muss man die Federn vom Hahn zupfen”, which translates to: “First, you have to pluck the feathers off the cock”. “Zupfen”, as plucking in English, can also be used in reference to plucking a string instrument, thus the first movement makes use of pizzicato and more explicitly of bartok pizzicato, which should be overemphasised by the first violin, as if violently plucking the feathers off a live bird.

The second movement is titled: “Dann, darf man den Esel streicheln”, translating to “Then, you may pet the donkey”. This movement includes a moment where either a sound file of a donkey honk is played loudly through speakers or one of the violinists or the violist imitates a loud donkey honk with their voice.

The final movement is titled “Translation? Making sense?”. This movement makes comment on the being of the piece. There is a linguistic connection between the narrative and the string quartet, yet there is no ‘real’ connection between a string quartet and a petting zoo.  Thus, the nature of the connection is elusive.  This forces the petting zoo itself to be non-sensical, as it is the only way the petting zoo can be, since it’s connection to the string quartet, which is the entity that gives it life, is non-sensical. Hence, in the zoo, one has to first pluck the feathers off a living cock, before being rewarded by getting to pet the donkey. If it would be a regular petting zoo, where one simply gets to the pet the donkey, the audience would question the connection of the zoo to the string quartet, which would mean questioning the life of the petting zoo. The zoo avoids this by being non-sensical. It distracts the audience from the nature of its connection to the quartet and instead makes the audience question whether the petting zoo, really is a petting zoo. This question is irrelevant to the zoo, as it knows that it is a petting zoo.  Thus, it is elemental to the very existence of the petting zoo, and for the piece itself, to be non-sensical.

Special thanks goes to all the members of the Bergamot Quartet for being incredibly helpful in designing this work.

Welcome to The Petting Zoo

Straight Lines for Baritone Saxophone Duet focuses on limited material and rhythm to create a visceral and tense atmosphere. The recording features the wonderful Max Thomas and Paco Torregrosa Verda.

Straight Lines

Toilet Cleaning In 7/8 for clarinet in A, viola and piano

Gestern und nie wieder - Henryk Golden
Conducted by Rob Vermeulen and performed by Francisca Branco, Ana Maria Lopes, Laura Ginström, Georgi Sztojanov and Einar Guðmundsson  together with the Orkest de Ereprijs in the Gigant in Apeldoorn.
Photo by Maarten Sprangh

Gestern und nie wieder

A Quick Thought for Saxophone Quartet was written during the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019. This is the recording of a concert held in the Lab at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. It features the Carnelian Saxophone Quartet with Lily Wilson-Caines on soprano, Sarah Austen on alto, Freya Chambers on tenor and Simeon Evans on baritone.

A Quick Thought for Saxophone Quartet

Public (2018-19) by Henryk Golden

Conducted by Dan Rosina and performed by the Decibel ensemble led by Ed Bennett. 

The title is taken from a Morton Feldman interview where he states that while the processes in writing a piece are private the sound is public. 

Howard Skempton described the piece as "New Complexity Pop"

Public

Basketball is a piece created within the Stockhausen Studio of the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. It uses a variety of sounds recorded in the silent studio of the studio, including bouncing a basketball off the soundboard of a piano, a song for voice and piano, tumbling music stands and etc. The piece uses dovetailing, hard cuts and layering to combine these sounds and create musical coherence. The piece is purposely panned to a single speaker to create a scene, where the listener listen from the perspective of someone who was just walked into a room and listening to everything that is happening inside from the doorway. 

This piece was motivated by an assignment given by Hugo Morales.

Picture taken by Daniil Pilchen.

Basketball

Henryk (Harry) Golden (1999, Warsaw) is a composer of German and American descent, who in his work focuses on juxtaposing and harmonizing different elements of musical and non-musical nature and then to play with, and humorize, these relationships that are created. He currently studies a Master’s degree in composition with Richard Ayres and Maya Verlaak at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He completed his Bachelor studies at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague under the tutelage of Diderik Wagenaar and Peter Adriaansz. He previously studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatory with Andrew Hamilton, Ed Bennett and Howard Skempton. At a younger age he also studied tuba and jazz with Jon Sass in Vienna, Austria. He participated in masterclasses conducted by Christopher Trapani, Syndey Corbett, Johannes Maria Staud, Anna Korsun, Yann Robin, Jennifer Walshe, Francesco Filidei among others. Last summer he was awarded a bursary to complete the collaborative composition course at the Dartington Summer School with Christopher Fox, Juliet Fraser, Larry Goves and House of Bedlam. 2020 he was selected to partake in the Roma New Music workshop with the mdi ensemble. 2019 he participated in the young composers meeting in Apeldoorn, Netherlands and in the ISA composition workshop in Mürzzuschlag, Austria. 2016 he was selected to partake in the Arnold Schönberg Center composition workshop in Vienna, Austria. His works are internationally performed with recent performances in the Wigmore Hall, London, UK by Naomi Sullivan and Luke Newby; Amare, Den Haag by the Residentie Orkest and Nicholas Collon and in the Philharmonie de Paris, France by Ensemble Multilatérale and Léo Warynski.

Harry Golden

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