Luminous

for solo contrabass and chamber ensemble

solo contrabass and chamber ensemble

Luminous was inspired by Mark Dresser’s uniquely powerful musical expressions and innovative techniques for the contrabass. The instrument’s rich spectra embody ‘voices’ that encompass extreme opposites – lightness and darkness, angels and ghosts, paradise and inferno – unified by a singular vibrating body. The composition explores these voices, starting with bowing on one string that produces multiphonics, double-stop bowing, and pizzicati. It concludes with the threading technique (attaching the bow from beneath the string), which allows the performer to bow multiple strings simultaneously. Lei Liang

Edition: Performance material

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Description

Luminous was inspired by Mark Dresser’s uniquely powerful musical expressions and innovative techniques created for the contrabass. The instrument’s rich spectra embody 'voices' that encompass extreme opposites – lightness and darkness, angels and ghosts, paradise and inferno – unified by a singular vibrating body. The composition explores these voices in a few large sections, starting with bowing on one string that produces multiphonics, double-stop bowing, and pizzicati. It concludes with the threading technique (attaching the bow from beneath the string) which allows the performer to bow multiple strings simultaneously. The last section is subtitled 'The Answer Questioned' as an homage to Charles Ives and György Kurtág.

Luminous was composed for bassist Mark Dresser, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and its Music Director Steven Schick. It was made possible by a generous grant from TenFourteen LLC, an arm of the Jebediah Foundation. Lei Liang

Orchestral Cast

bass clarinet (with small spring drum), horn (with medium spring drum), percussion (3cym, 5tempbl, whip, whistle, guiro, 1timp, crot, vib, 2bng, tam-t, b.d), piano (with protractor and slide bar), violin (with small spring drum), viola (with medium spring drum), cello (with large spring drum)

More Information

Title:

Luminous

for solo contrabass and chamber ensemble

Edition:

Performance material

Publisher/Label:

Schott Music Corporation

Year of composition:

2014

Duration:

20 ′

World Premiere:

March 29, 2015 · Berkeley, CA (USA)
Hertz Hall
Mark Dresser, contrabass · Conductor: Steven Schick · San Francisco Contemporary Music Players

Commissioned work :

Commissioned by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, made possible by a generous grant from TenFourteen LLC, an arm of the Jebediah Foundation