For 12 musicians & tape 
Conductor: Christopher Austin
Esbjerg Ensemble

Flow

Most people associate the term 'flamboyant' with cockiness and extravagance. But in reality, the verb 'flamboyer' means to blaze, sparkle or set on fire. "Flamboyer" is the title of Li-Ying Wu's new work for percussion duo and orchestra, her largest work to date, which, in addition to the full symphony orchestra, requires a large setup of both Western and Asian percussion instruments.

The two percussion soloists use e.g. Chinese table drums, which are known from Chinese opera, and the soloists must both improvise and move choreographically as part of the work. It all takes place under the title Flamboyer, which has several meanings for the composer:

"Flamboyer is French meaning ‘to burn’ or ‘to set on fire’," Li-Ying Wu explains. "When I started to write the piece, I knew that the rest of the concert would be French music, and that inspired me to find a French word or term to describe music with energy and colours, but also with metamorphic associations. Fire transforms things from one state to another. And I also like, that fire is so much linked to rituals throughout human history. A concert is in many ways a ritual, something we experience together and share. In the piece, you should be able to hear the fire in different stages - from roaring flames with intense heat to just a pulsing glow."

In Flamboyer, Li-Ying Wu combines traditions and timbres from Western and Asian music in various ways, as she explains:

"In many Asian languages, the intonation of a word can change the meaning of it. Maybe that is why, I find, that Asian music is more about colours, whereas Western music sometimes is more about form, direction and lines," Li-Ying Wu states and continues: "That is what I try to combine in ‘Flamboyer’. The soloists do not play so-called melodic percussion instruments like marimba and xylophone, which play exact pitches. They play non-pitch instruments like drums, woodblocks, gongs and cymbals, chosen carefully for their colours. These colours are reflected also in the orchestra. But at the same time, these instruments also create rhythm driving the music forward, and as a result, creating forms and structures common to Western music.

The concerto includes a passage of improvisations, which Li-Ying Wu expects to bring even more colour to the work:

"The classical concerto, as we know from for instance Mozart and Beethoven, always has a cadenza, and in those days, the soloist was expected to improvise the cadenza, based on the material of the concerto. Later, it became more common for the composer to write the cadenza, but in this piece, I felt that the soloists should work out the cadenza themselves. They have some guidelines, but they spend so many hours with their instruments, finding colours I probably can not even begin to imagine. I hope they can bring these colours to the piece. And by being part of the creative process like this, I hope they also feel and experience ownership of the piece - that they don't just play what I tell them to do, but come with an important, creative input, which also makes it ‘their’ piece. And I think and hope, that this will also be felt by the audience."

Flamboyer - Double concerto for 2 percussionists & Symphony Orchestra

For Soprano, Alto saxophones & electronic
Hylaves is commissioned by Kasper Hemmer Pihl & Claus Olesen 

Hylaves (excerpts)

Lena Nietfeld - Jugalbandi (2012) (excerpt) for Balinese trompong, alto flute, and sinfonietta ensemble

Tim Feeney, trompong
Shaun Barlow, alto flute
Eastman Composers' Sinfonietta
Daniel Bassin, conductor 

score and program note: https://lenanietfeld.wordpress.com/works/jugalbandi/

Jugalbandi (excerpt)

Waarom niet performed by Nederlands Studenten Orkest / Ivan Meylemans in De Doelen - Rotterdam, 18-02-2013

Live concert, De Doelen, Rotterdam, 18feb2013

Waarom niet?

Waarom niet? (2013)

2017 New work for Accordion and String Quartet - live recording.
Andreas Borregaard & Sonar Quartett

photo by: Klang Festival

Dissolved Voices for Accordion and String Quartet

Chen Yu-Fang, violin
Premiered at TICF 2017.
Recorded at Ball State University on 11-20-2017.

In Murmuring Flies in a Translucent Box (2017), the composer explores dialogues between light and darkness hidden in a variety of textures. Rapid interchanges of harmonic and ordinary pitches as well as bowing positions creates shimmering murmurs that resemble the title figuratively.

Murmuring Flies In A Translucent Box for solo Violin

The Ritournelle was originally a French dance in quick triple meter, but the word was also used describing a musical form, where the fast dance-music was superseded with contrasting music. This easily recognisable form later got known under the name rondo, which we find used by for instance Mozart, in the last movement of his piano sonata in A, the ”rondo alla turca”, and Brahms, ”rondo alla zingarese” in the piano quartet in g-minor. But while Brahms and Mozart points towards the music of Turks and gypsies, the Albatro Vermicolato is the Italian name for the Waved Albatross, also known as the Galapagos Albatross. This bird has a highly developed mating dance, where perplexing gestures and sounds are repeated in ways which for us humans resembles a careful choreographed ritual. This ritual bird-dance, is surrounded by fast music in triple meter – a ritournelle

Ritournelle, Rondo alla L'albatro vermicolato

Double concerto for Sheng, Accordion and Sinfonietta (2012-13) 


Conductor: Jean Thorel
Sheng: Dong Ying (China)
Accordion: Frode Andersen (Denmark/ Norway)
Århus Sinfonietta 

Shadows mvt. 1

Double concerto for Sheng, Accordion and Sinfonietta (2012-13) 

Conductor: Jean Thorel
Sheng: Dong Ying (China)
Accordion: Frode Andersen (Denmark/ Norway)
Århus Sinfonietta 

Shadows mvt.2

Double concerto for Sheng, Accrodion and Sinfonietta (2012 -13) 

Conductor: Jean Thorel 
Sheng: Dong Ying (China)
Accordion: Frode Andersen (Denmark/ Norway) 
Århus Sinfonietta 


Shadows mvt. 3 & 4

Between east and west
Between and beyond the acoustic and the electronic sound
Sensual communicative music in colorful and evocative timbre

Classical educated composer

Flamboyer - Double concerto for 2 percussionists & Symphony Orchestra

Li-Ying Wu

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