Repeating Ourselves – quintet for alto flute, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano (2017) is written for a special music marathon around the composer Anthony Fiumara at NovemberMusic 2017, an international contemporary music festival in the medieval city ‘s Hertogenbosch.
In this so-called ‘Fiumarathon’, the work was premiered by the ensemble FC Jongbloed, consisting of talented conservatory students. After this premiere on Thursday November 9, 2017 the piece was played again in a festive concert of FC Jongbloed at the Link in Tilburg (21-11-2017.)
Premiere of Repeating Ourselves at NovemberMusic 2017
Title, form and structure
Repeating Ourselves is also the title of a beautifully written book about American repetitive music by the author Robert Fink. When I worked on this quintet I was reading this book and was inspired by this.
The composition is reminiscent of the structure of a pop song. There is an intro, a verse and a bridge that (after the repetition) leads to a chorus. The piece ends with a meandering outro.
The composition begins as a little music machine driven by repetitive modal cells (cello, vibraphone and piano). On top of that, the violin starts to sing in another metre (verse). The alto flute appears with her own melody (bridge). In the repetition of the verse the alto flute answers the violin melody. All this leads to a loud refrain/chorus. Hereinafter the music slowly sinks into stillness.