Oct 6, 2022
Commissioned for the 40th Anniversary of the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, "Fantasia for Strings, Piano, and Harp," Sterling Maffe's newest concert piece will premiere on November 13, 2022 at the Norris Theater in Palos Verdes, California.
Maffe says of his new 10-minute composition:
"‘Fantasia’ was born from two relentless melodies that had been bouncing around in my head, but I couldn’t quite find a place for them in my daily film or video game work. When I was presented with the opportunity to compose an overture for the COSB, I immediately jumped at the chance to realize the potential of the two, four-bar motifs.
The first melody, which opens the piece, is characterized by its Mixolydian tonality and frequent use of stirring, rapid trills which leap across the range of the orchestra. It has an uplifting, joyous, and sometimes almost comical quality. By contrast, the second melody embodies a soft, minor, inquisitive quality and contains itself to a range no larger than a perfect fifth, less than half the octave. To compound their incompatibility, each theme exists in opposing meters, the first being in common time, and the second a waltz-like 3/4.
The challenge of the composition was to take these converse melodies and weave them closer and closer so that by the end of the piece they can play in tandem, and even function in polyphony, sharing the stage at the same time as the music concludes."
The concert will also feature Josef Suk's Serenade for Strings and the Copland Clarinet Concerto with featured soloist Boris Allakhverdyan, principal clarinet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.