Tara & Portrait for Tara
The composition TARA for Solo Bassett Horn was written in 2001 for the Dutch clarinetist Tara Bouman. PORTRAIT FOR TARA is an extended ensemble version of the same music.
The German music magazine „Neue Zeitschrift für Musik“ (02/2004) wrote about the composition TARA: What we often miss in new music, we can find here: ease and unforcedness, playfulness and humor with a twinkle in one’s eye.”
Tara Bouman has performed this piece more than 30 times in concerts and recorded it on her solo album “Contemporary.”, released by AKTIVRAUM with support from the Deutschlandfunk, Cologne. The seven movements of TARA are titled: “energetic, masculine”, “feminine, gentle, very quiet”, “childlike, cheerful”, “the bear”, “nasty-conciliative”, “Tara’s flight” and “Tara’s encore”.
This solo piece has become the foundation upon which the ensemble piece PORTRAIT FOR TARA was composed, a commission by Django Bates for the Festival FuseLeeds in 2004, to be written for the London Sinfonietta under the direction of Martyn Brabbins. PORTRAIT FOR TARA is a suite of 18 minutes with many different moods and expressions. “I have elaborated the seven movements of TARA and composed transitions connecting one movement to the next. It has become my most detailled composition to date (2003).”
You can oder the music any time here: music
TARA
for Solo Bassett Horn
Composed in 2001
Duration: approx 12.30’
PORTRAIT FOR TARA
for Solo Bassett Horn and Ensemble
Composed in 2001/2003
Duration: ca. 18’
Instrumentation
Solo Bassett Horn in F
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet in Bb
Bassoon
Trumpet in C
Horn in F
Trombone
Percussion (one player, 2 parts ):
snare drum
4 different sized Cymbals
4 Toms with different pitches
Tambourine, Triangel
7 Thai-Gongs with the following pitches:
D,E,F,F#,G,A,Bb
Piano, Celesta (one player)
Violine 1
Violine 2
Viola
Violon Cello
Double Bass
The strings can be augmented to form a string orchestra section.
Well worth doing…
Aktivraum Musikverlag, Köln 2003, ISMN: M-700233-11-2
Commissioned by
Django Bates, Festivals FuseLeeds 2004
World Premiere
March 3rd, 2004 in Leeds (UK)
Artists
Tara Bouman, London Sinfonietta
conducted by Martyn Brabbins