Divertimento

The unusual instrumentation with flute (also piccolo and alto flute), violoncello and percussion (2 players with xylophone, metallophones, crotales, glockenspiel, woodblocks, drums and temple block) is in line with Ursula Mamlok's predilection for harsh sounds and clearly discernible lines and structures. The fact that her way of thinking as a composer is not determined by visual, but rather by purely musical stimuli becomes apparent in the designations "toccata", "refrains", "variations", and "epilogue". All four movements together are no longer than 10 minutes in duration. Even in 1969, when Divertimento was composed, the composer strove for extreme precision, terseness and condensation which were to characterize her entire subsequent oeuvre. Divertimento was performed for the first time by the Parnassus Ensemble at the Graduate Center der City University New York in 1975.