Most Beautiful Bird of Paradise

The Schönberg Ensemble commissioned a work that should be an openingpiece (like an ouverture) with a lyrical character.
The title of the work is intended to be metaphorical and should therefore not be interpreted literally. It merely refers to a nostalgic feeling about memories or a close person in a lost or never existed (paradise-like) place.
Because of the instrumentation which includes for instance an accordion and a doublebass clarinet, the work consists of a wide spectrum of soundcolours.
It is composed by means of a strictly used ratio of 2:3:6:3:2:6:2 which is applied to the formal structure, to bar-proportions, to contrapuntal proportions and to the rhythm. Except for that, the main ratio is also used to generate pitches, where for instance ‘2’ becomes a major second and ‘3’ a minor third. As a result, a quite diatonic language is created with a composing process that reminds us of composers of post-war serialism, but also of the composer after whom the ensemble for which this work was written was named. Instead of the negative attitude of serialists to avoid consonance, in this piece, consonance is being consciously searched for; the work comprises of perfect fourths.
On one hand these fourths are used like in Schönberg’s first Chamber Symphony (meaning in a (horizontal) melodic way or being piled up until a wide chord is achieved), but on the other hand they are part of successive harmonies with which the work gets a massive, primitive, almost middleage-like character.

The work was commisioned by the Schoenberg Ensemble and financially supported by the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst.