AnTUNEsFOR HARPSICHORD
de Sérgio Azevedo (1968)
Ref. ava080204
Duração: 6'30''
AnTUNEsFOR HARPSICHORD was writen after a suggestion from the ESML administration to me to compose a small piece for the valuable (only two are known to exist in the entire world) harpsichord named after the builder's name: "Antunes". This harpsichord belongs to the Museum of Music in Lisbon. This instrument has only a single keyboard (with 53 keys), and a limited number of registration (two sets of strings which can merge: 8' or 8'+8'). Writen to Ana Mafalda Castro, a broaded-minded player who performs music from renaissance period to contemporary works, this piece has two distinct parts, only the first being possible to play at the "Antunes" harpsichord (the second part asks for a two-keyboard harpsichord, but the two parts are independent and can be played as individual pieces). The first part echoes a distant baroc past, and a certain oniric melancholy invades the music through echoes of a non-identifiable folk style. This "folk music" dominates the second part of the piece, which is rythmically obsessive (a kind of "tocata") and emotionally extrovert.