Corona Australis for woodwind quartet (Dmytro Demchenko) DIGITAL
This is an 8 minute minimalist work that explores different textures, timbres and extended techniques that woodwind instruments can produce.
This is a one-movement work based on outer space. The Corona Australis is a constellation in the southern hemisphere of the sky discovered by the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in the second century. Musically, the piece explores timbre and rhythm by flowing between slight changes occurring over time. The piece has an unusual form that has a couple main motifs and sections that return and are transformed. The piece begins with an A section consisting of multiphonic whole notes in a staggered entry not in any pattern. Then a B section comprised of dotted quarter note where different instruments drop out at random intervals revealing a wide variety of textures, colors and timbres available in a woodwind quartet through exploring as many possible instrumental combinations. Then the main motivic material is introduced in the C section which is a syncopated sixteenth note melody that develops into a thirty-second note motif in the flute over top of an accompaniment ostinato that alternates between consonance and dissonance. Then a two-measure interruption involving the bassoon knocking on the body of the instrument leading to a repetition of the thirty-second note motif beginning with the bassoon, and staggered entry by the oboe and flute overtop of a syncopated repeated note ostinato in the clarinet. Then a one-measure unison 5:4 eighth note motif is played by the entire ensemble to lead back to the A section. This then leads to a staggered entry of the syncopated clarinet motif but this time it is on the beat that develops in intensity through quicker rhythm and louder dynamics until the thirty-second motif of the C section returns. Then the B section comes back but instead starts on beat four instead of the downbeat. This grows dynamically until arriving at forte which simultaneously becomes the four measure Coda consisting of rhythmically unison chords.
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