First Performance
April 2003
Ruya Taner
Purcell Hall
London, UK
Instrumentation
piano
Duration
12'
Listen
Program Notes
Gates is commissioned by Ruya Taner. Ruya’s Turkish-Cypriot background was the inspiring impetus for the creation of this work. I wanted to create a piece in which the traditional Turkish Instruments’ sounds like the saz’s, ney’s and the Turkish village drum’s may be synthesized and produced on the piano. Saz is a multi stringed strummed instrument that can create great perpetual rhythms. Ney is similar to a flute, with the sound being much more airy and spiritual. The Turkish village drum is the grandfather of the bass drum. It is loud with a reverberant, percussive sound that can be deep, festive and bombastic. To achieve these various colors, in addition to playing normally, the pianist dampens and plucks the strings inside, and even sings (without words). The fact that Greeks share the island of Cyprus with the Turks, and also because of my perpetual love for contrasts, I created distant choral-like sections and even repeated sounds of distant bells. The work is a voyage of the folk-like and the culturally inspired sounds melted in with the sound of the modern piano.
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