PRESS PLAY Episode 68: Oh, my Admired C Minor

Oh, my Admired C Minor (2002)

Martin Smolka (CZ), composer

Leslie Newman, alto flute
Anthony Thompson, clarinet
Clemens Merkel, violin
Stephanie Bozzini, viola
Isabelle Bozzini, cello
Jackie Leung, piano
Ryan Scott, percussion

The piece is another attempt to breathe new life into old, hackneyed musical elements – this time the minor triad and minor melodies.

It’s possible to view the piece as a visit to a charming little junk-shop, filled with bits and pieces of a vanished world. Right above the door hangs a fragment of a beautiful Romantic melody whose loosening notes scarcely hold together and each has a different colour. Just beyond the entrance loom once majestic epic chords, now dreadfully out of tune and rather squeaky. Dust, dimly lit, all kinds of smells. In the middle of the room hang polished arpeggios, a little way beyond them tin chords are rusting, completely warped and a little cracked. And so on.

You leave undecided as to whether you are delighted or frightfully sad.