Humoresque for large orchestra

(2000 - rev.2005)

A miniature concerto for orchestra of playful and ambiguous character,with important and coloured percussion parts. A sort of "hommage" to Carl Nielsen's 6th symphony and Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st and 9th symphonies.

This is my first composition for orchestra. Duration ca. 9'

All themes and motives are simple, deliberately prosaic and humorous.

Bars 1 to 69 function as an exposition whereby all important motives are heard in the first 23 bars.

1) Bar 1 - main ‘theme’, clarinet in B flat, a sort of “C major / C minor” joke.

2) Bars 1-2, two short notes - horns, celli (pizz.) and bass drum.

3) Bars 3-4 - English horn and clarinet in B flat.

4) The “Willem Tell” rhythm, bar 8 (violins and oboes) and bars 17-19 (violas and celli).

5) A short arpeggio bars 15 - 16 / pic. , fl. , ob. , Bb cl. , basoons.

6) Bars 22 - 23, violas and celli.

Bars 70 to 176: development.

Letter H, bar 111, a false beginning of recapitulation...

Letter I, bar 140, a central fugue for strings.

Bar 177, a hesitant and stuttering recapitulation - but is it really a recapitulation?...

A second fugue for strings at letter L, bar 207 and... a BIG surprise "à la Haydn" at bar 240!!

A short, slow and even melancholic epilogue at letter N, bars 244 - 249 (adagio).

Then comes a pompous coda, a kind of "grand grand grand" carnival apotheosis, denied by the concluding bars (267 - 271) of the piece...