- Title: Burlesque on the Death of a Dictator
- Instrumentation: for wind ensemble and percussion / symphony orchestra
- Year: 2025
- Duration: 6’00”
- Commissioner: New Music NOW
- Premiere: 21st June, 4th edition of the annual Composer’s Day (Dag van de Componist), The Hague Central Station.
- First performer: Neo-Fanfare 9X13.
- Genre & Subgenre: Mixed ensemble
- Scoring: fl sax-a sax-b tpt h trb tb 2perc
- Buy Score: Donemus Publishing
PROGRAM NOTE
“I think I need a drink.’
‘Almost everybody does only they don’t know it.”
― Charles Bukowski, Women
It’s not every day that a composer and musicians get to have fun at the central station. Brass and woodwinds combined with percussion—what could be better?
We are in for a joyful yet grotesque funeral performance in the form of a bizarre burlesque. The percussion, beating out simple ostinato rhythms, sometimes seems to lose its way for several beats. It sets off a powerful energy impulse against the introductory brass melodies, which stretch out across a different temporal plane.
Clouds of saxophone and flute passages hover above them. Gradually, we approach the ‘main junction’, where the rumble of metal cymbals collides with the glissading chords of growling trombones and French horns.
I want to create a simple structure that simultaneously carries multi-layered polyphony. Images of grotesque dances should intersect with eerie flashes of reality, evoking laughter through pain and fear. Let it not be a reflection of reality, but rather a sinister laugh at its absurdity.