Unisons

Gringolts Quartet
Live recording during Mizmorim Festival 2023

Rough Surfaces

Performed by Ensemble Sargo

Noëmi Schwank - Sopran Saxophone
Sara Zazo Romero - Sopran Saxophone
Valeria Vetrici - Piano
Rafael Gordillo Maza - Piano

Szuyu Chen - conductor






The songs of the Pine Tree - "Cântecele Bradului" and of the Dawn - "Cântecul Zorilor" are two of the oldest funeral songs from Romania. They have pre-Christian origins, and the Song the Dawn where called also the Sisters of the Sun.

The Song of the dawn is a funeral song, which initiates the defunct for the hereafter world. The singers use to call the deceased by his name and give him advices about how to behave and what to do after-life. Before the funeral service, in the dawn, some old women used to sing to the dead from the outside of the window, then from inside the house, with their faces oriented toward East. 

At the young & unmarried man or woman's funeral service, it was a custom to decorate a pine tree, symbolizing a hypothetical partner in marriage. Young lads used to look in the woods after the dead person's pine tree. It was a common belief that each person has its unique pine tree, hidden somewhere in the forest, which it shall be identified and brought over young person's grave, otherwise the deceased will not rest in peace. When the pine tree has made it's way inside the deceased courtyard, women start singing the Song of the Pine Tree and decorating it with sweets, fruits, ribbons, handkerchiefs, etc. Then it was carried at the cemetery and stuck on the grave, near the cross, symbolizing the just passed away young person's replacement in the real world. 

These two funeral songs have inspired me to write the piece Zorile, in which I bring up the two facets of death - death as a tragedy, but also as a continuation in another type of life - a metamorphosis.

Victor Coltea - Zorile - For Two Saxophones And Two Pianos (Ensemble Sargo)

commissioned and performed by CexSaxo duo

Detonation

Victor Coltea - Hyper Atom

commissioned and performed by Viviane Hasler and Katrin Szamatulski

Victor Coltea - Zorile de afara for soprano and alto flute

Blast - performed by Silke Strahl and Jessica Porter

Victor Coltea - Blast - for saxophones and drums

Block Chain - Victor Coltea

Jürg Henneberger - Conductor
Ensemble Phoenix Basel 
Live-Recording: 11 January 2020, Gare du Nord, Basel

Copyright SRF 2020

Block Chain (2020)

Composer

Co-founder and artistic director of the Ensemble Sargo

Victor Alexandru Coltea

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