Szeged Trombone Ensemble - Over Tonality

Though these five composers have different outlooks and use different musical idioms, they share essential values as composers. They are without prejudice as regards styles, are keen to admit the most diverse influences, and do so in an absolutely discerning manner. The Y and Z generations of contemporary Hungarian composers are the inheritors of a musical tradition whose central figures were György Kurtág and György Ligeti, who gave contemporary Hungarian music international significance again after Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, and Ernő Dohnányi. Though all of these artists have pursued studies abroad (Canada, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Sweden), they all consider the Liszt Academy their alma mater. They would like to reformulate their musical role in the present, and bring contemporary music closer to younger audiences. The artists of STUDIO 5 believe their approach can make today’s classical music accessible again for the public.

András Gábor VIRÁGH: Morning

Morning for 4 trombones, by the Hungarian composer András Gábor Virágh (*1984), takes its inspiration from the poem Parancsolgató [Bossy] by Dániel Varró, a prominent figure among the current younger generation of Hungarian poets. Morning adheres to the poem's narrative faithfully from beginning to end. The composition was published by the Editions Bim (Switzerland) in 2019.

Bence KUTRIK: Kertvárosi idill • Suburban Idyll

We moved to Dunabogdány, a picturesque village founded by Germans, two years ago, and its quiet and good air came to be the inspirations for this piece. It seeks to express urban man’s impressions of the countryside, and so I chose Dániel Varró’s An Urban Poet in the Flower Garden. I looked at the morning, a busy time of the day, to see what is going on in the village. The tenor of the work is essentially pastoral, with an aesthetic that follows the great masters’ heritage, yet

the sound of the trombones lends it a certain hymnic, solemn tone, which is an appropriate symbol of the quiet of the village. I did extensive research before starting to write, to see how great composers chose to portray musically this pastoral mood, and a few quotes can be heard in my piece. (Bence Kutrik)

Judit VARGA: Puzzle

The piece is to erect a quiet memento to the countless (boring autumn) afternoons when the composer stares at the empty sheet, without a gleam of inspiration, whereas she should compose something. The title, Puzzle, refers to the fragmentary composition technique. As you listen, you get a sense of the form, witness how the musical ideas, so many small parts of a jigsaw puzzle, grow and turn into a large form. The pieces of the puzzle are mostly borrowed material, not my own ideas, as is suggested by the subtitle, Black Hole Edition. How and why does this end up being my own composition? This work is a good example of how the idea itself is a negligibly small part of the creative process: it is more important and decisive how and what the composer constructs from it. The piece is loosely related to Dániel Varró’s poem, Boring Autumn Poem about Boredom.

Máté BELLA: Varródermia

The composition I call Varródermia was inspired by Dániel Varró’s poem, License. I am yet another one of those artists who get their driving license in their thirties, (and even then practically buy

it). Received late in life, the fresh license opens a broad emotional spectrum for the driver in rush- hour Budapest: your failure to change lanes, the angry honking when you start slow, the motor stalling uphill in Buda – these experiences will reshape your attitude to driving, and will define it for the rest of your life. So I could perfectly identify with the poem, and this piece for six trombones represents this anxious, though often absurd, experience. The agitated musical materialof the repetitive aleatory modules reaches tranquillity in the course of transformations – a state that unfortunately cannot last for ever. (Máté Bella)

Árpád SOLTI: Singer – Varró gép • Sewing Machine

Written for a soprano soloist and eight trombones, the piece is a setting for Dániel Varró’s poem, Lullaby for Misi. The music employs the perspective of the poem’s addressee, Misi: as he is falling asleep, he can still hear the narrator’s words, but they become commentary to his own surrealistic film of a dream. So what you hear is not an illustration of the poem, but what is probably true of most dreams, a reality beyond reality. (Árpád Solti)

Janko NILOVIC

Janko Nilovic was born in Istanbul in 1941 as a son of a Montenegrin father and a Greek mother. His father was a flutist and a musical instrument collector, hence he started to play the piano, the oboe and percussion instruments as a child. From the ‘60s, he lived in Paris where he worked as a bar pianist then turned to pop music, writing transcriptions first and later on becoming famous as a producer. Until the ‘70s, he composed mainly jazz pieces, but he also wrote many concertos during this period, including pieces for trombones. For example, in 1974, Balkan Suit was composed for 7 trombones and 4 percussions. Later, he associated with many noted pop musicians, like Michel Jonas and Gérard Lenorman, besides, he worked with hip-hop artists including Dr. Dre and Jay-Z. The music which was a collaboration of Nilovic and Jay-Z won a Grammy Award.