SarabaNde is a musical piece, composed for the Dyce project (Discovering young Composer)  in 2020. It is associated with a competition in which 4 composers were selected to represent a specific region of Europe. I represented the green region which includes Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

SarabaNde together with the piece ChacoN are part of a collection of pieces in which I intend to explore a musical form, which establishes some form of repetition in a short period of time. As the name suggests, the piece SarabaNde explores the musical form "sarabande" from the Baroque period. It generally features a short motif that is repeated cyclically, and in each repetition a variation of the motif is triggered. These characteristics were used in the piece in conjunction with the process of rhythmic phasing and dilation. Each instrumental line is phased either forwards or backwards, and at certain key points the rhythmic figures are augmented proportionally.

The result is a kind of perceptual distortion, which I liken to the act of progressively dipping an image in churning water, thus creating a kind of oscillation in the perception of it. In the end, the idea is to create a subtle detachment with the original motif, but not completely. There is always the feeling that the original motif still echoes in our mind, although in reality this is not the case.

In this recording it is the Ensemble U: that is performing. All the ensembles associated to the Dyce project performed the four compositions of each composer, but only the recording of the performance of the ensemble from the same region represented by the composer can be found on the CD album, that is on sale in different music shops.

SarabaNde

~Headphones recommended~
Check out my website on sound&space: vassilisph.wixsite.com/soundnspace
Paramorfosi (Greek: deformation) is using a 16-minute recording of a walk within the area of Greenwich-London. For this piece I used cross-synthesis, a technique whereby one signal confers one or more of its characteristics to another. The sounds of the walk within the recording are not obvious. Rather, attention is focused on the reverberation of both the spaces from the 16-minute walk recording and six separate spaces. Convolution, being a method of cross-synthesis, combines two audio sources emphasizing the frequencies they share and minimizing the ones that are different. In result, the piece flows and grows following the two audio sources, which in this case are the walk and the spaces recordings.

Paramorfosi_environmental soundscape (excerpt) {2015}

Live recording from STM museum in San Sebastián, 4.10.2016
Performers: Trio Zukan

 In a system of combined sound information, our ears categorize each one differently altering the focus and concentrating on the sounds that seem to be more important. Although each and every single sound, as small and subtle as it can be, is a part of the general body of sound. A pebble on a distant shore doesn’t seem to be that important and the attention is driven to the broader picture of the collection of pebbles. 
In this composition I concentrate on a single pebble; a few fragile sounds from each instrument, bringing them in the foreground with the goal to explore their sound possibilities while they interact and develop along the piece.

A Pebble on a distant shore_for txistu, acc,perc. (excerpt) {2016}

Performed by Elisabeth Smalt. 
Released on the CD Subvoice - unsounds.com/shop/physical/subvoice

Music For Viola

Live recordings from the 'Slotconcert' of the Young Composres Meeting 2017.
Orkest | De Ereprijs performs 16 new compositions from composers under 30 years of age all over the world. 
After a week of hard labour and rehearsals 16 beautiful new pieces and as number 17 the beautiful piece by Raphaël who was commissioned at the YCM 2016

04 Vasileios Filippou - Swash

Mute é o primeiro single extraído do disco de Inversus, editado a 13 de Março de 2017, com o selo da ZigurArtists.

Mute

Coro e Orquestra Sinfónica da Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa
Paulo Lourenço, conductor
Sara Afonso, soprano

Live recording of the premiere on 9.12.2017
Recorded by Eduardo Mota and Tiago Alves
Mastered by Eduardo Mota

WORDS (all text selection from Bahá’i Scriptures except when noted)

I.
The Book of God is wide open, and His Word is summoning mankind unto Him.
It behoveth every man with an open mind to gaze on the signs, the proofs, and the tokens of His glory.
Verily I say, this is the Day in which mankind can behold the Face, and hear the Voice, of the Promised One. The Call of God hath been raised, and the light of His countenance hath been lifted up upon men.
How long will you persist in your waywardness?
How long will ye refuse to reflect?
How long ‘till you are roused from your heedlessness?
How long will you remain unaware of the truth?

II. (dedicated to Bernardo Sassetti) [6'15'']
O Son of Man! I love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee.
O Son of Earth! I have created all from dust, and all to dust will I return again.
Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.
Seize thy chance for it will come to thee no more!
Love Me, that I may love thee.

Interlude I. [10'42'']
[…Love Thee, that Thou may love me…]
Lord! Every time I venture to make mention of Thee, I am held back by my mighty sins and grievous trespasses against Thee, and find myself wholly deprived of Thy grace, and utterly powerless to celebrate Thy praise. I implore Thee not to abandon me unto my self, for my heart is prone to evil. Lord, enlighten my sight by beholding Thy lights in this dark night, and make me happy by the wine of Thy love in this wonderful age.
Thy name is my healing, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy.

III.* [12'35'']
We have come only to sleep,
we have come only to dream.
It is not true, it is not true
we have come to live on the earth.

As at every spring the grass is renewed,
so do we too acquire form.
Our heart puts out shoots, grows green;
our body begets a few flowers
and then lies withered.

Interlude II. [17'05'']
(Solo) Wayward though we be, still we cling to Thy bounty.
(Choir) Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

IV. [18'18'']
(Choir) The days of your life flee away as a breath of wind, and all your pomp and glory shall be folded up as of those gone before you. Reflect, o people! What hath become of your bygone days, your lost centuries?
(Solo) Shut not Your doors to me. Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself.
(Choir) When the day star of My beauty and the heaven of My tabernacle concealed are from your eyes, be not, o World, dismayed, for I am with you at all times.
(Solo) Amen

*Translation from original in Nahua (Mexican indigenous language) by Lesley Bird Sympson. This relates to indigenous philosophy in ixtli in yollotl meaning “cara y corazon” where the ultimate goal of human existence is to find one’s own heart (the seat of knowledge) and face (the reflection of character) thus developing spiritual leadership and knowledge in preparation for the world to come.

Cantata: Awakenings (2014)

"Winged Insectary"

Três Palavras Ocultas (2016), a partir de melodias de Sónia Gomes para "As Palavras Ocultas" de Bahá'u'lláh.

I. Insuflei em ti um sopro
II. Faz Menção de Mim
III. Ó Filho do Trono!

Encomenda comemorativa para o 20º Aniversário da Associação Ricercare.

Coro Ricercare e Sinfonietta de Lisboa
direcção, Vasco Azevedo
gravação ao vivo, Grande Auditório da ESML

Coro Ricercare
Sinfonietta de Lisboa
direcção, Vasco Azevedo
gravação ao vivo

SarabaNde

Ceitil

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