Sated Bodies

for large orchestra (3,3,3,3/4,3,3,0/harp,3perc/strings)
composed 1993/94; duration 15 minutes
commissioned by Sergio Cárdenas and Filarmónica de Querétaro
world premiere 16th International Forum for Contemporary Music (Mexico) May 1994
Filarmónica de Querétaro; Sergio Cárdenas – conductor

This composition is the first orchestral piece in which Graugaard uses pure sound as musical vehicle. The development of these sections of the composition is not governed by pitches, chords, or any other discrete entities. The result is characterized by very long lines of instruments around a common flow, where a multitude of differences make a continuously developing, common gesture.

The artistic goal with the piece was to reach an espressivo without any apparent connection to melody. In this way, the saturation of the sound- bodies becomes the espressivo itself. These saturated sound bodies – sated bodies – engage in a large-scale conversation, in which they dissolve and combine, only to reappear in new shapes. Towards the end of the piece this discourse mounts into a huge orchestral tutti, which in the last bars is pushed even further up into maximum capability of the orchestra. The piece is in one continuous movement.

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