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The first piece on the CD, 1991, - written in the same
year for the Dutch ensemble LOOS and inspired by the early
forms of Abstract Art as practised by Malevitch, the Italian
Futurists and the earliest forms of electronic music - is
probably the most unreservedly ´Art-oriented´
piece on this CD. The piece deals with primary figures.
Little blocks, rectangles, horizontals, verticals and diagonals
of different volume and portent - each transformed into
their most direct musical equivalents - find themselves
marching over an imaginary screen, popping up again in different
guises (changes in instrumentation), being stopped abruptly
in their tracks by suddenly appearing ´boulders´(the
woodblock), or being egged-on by vehemently underlined ´horizontals´
in the sax-multiphonics. (…) In its overall discontinuity,
concreteness and in the ultimate grotesque flick of its
tail, where the figures have definitely attained an unexpected
but inevitable ´maturity´, 1991 is a typical
Paul Termos-piece.
Vocalise X (…) was written in 1993 for Paul´s
partner, the soprano Margo Rens, and deals with acoustic
space. (…) Being basically a responsorial structure
between unisons and contrapuntually oscillating piano-intermezzos,
Vocalise-X plays with gradually expanding and diminishing
unison-phrases on one hand and with ornamental development
on the other.
Vuoto Ossesso (…) was conceived both as an exercise
in two-dimensionality - confronting excruciatingly high
notes with simple triadic permutations - as well as an exercise
in the power of force. (…)
Blues for Marcel W. (…) consists basically of four
pieces of material: broken triads in the right hand, a chromatic
bass-line, a ´quasi-Fats Domino´ quote and a
meandering discant version of the bass-line in minor thirds.
(…)
Fortuna (…) seems to be the natural predecessor to
1991. Scored for chamber choir and four instrumentalists
the piece is based upon a poem from the 13th century anthology
Carmina Burana, dealing with the capriciousness of fate.
(…) Like all the pieces on this CD Fortuna is a typical
Paul Termos-piece: severity and humour go hand in hand,
control and excess embrace each other fondly and statement
and treatment are united in a music which seems forever
young.
Peter Adriaansz
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