Nocturne - Insomnia

Nocturne – Insomnia is the first piece in a projected series of independent ensemble pieces. Various manifestations of tonality have appeared like a thread throughout my last pieces. Musically, I have been strongly molded by the classical and romantic traditions. This became clearer as I began to delve more deeply into composition. Thus I deal with my background not in order to find my way back to it, but in order to use it as a point of departure for my own music.

In Nocturne – Insomnia the point is not just to write ‘tonal = beautiful = slow’, but to go beyond this obvious principle which is commonly associated with the newer tonal music and to draw “tonal threads” through more dramatic, intensely agitated parts as well.

In the first part, an arc is drawn out of the deepest depths to the highest possible tones; upon returning to the lower register, ever more noises and rhythmic areas come together, which then initiate the second part: a completely restless entity that repeatedly tries to calm itself down but which never succeeds.

The ensemble is almost always dealt with as a collective: the ensemble itself as a soloist, as ONE body, which goes through the various stations of a night. At the end of the piece, the state of insomnia has not been dispelled, nor has it been assuaged. Not even the small ‘sleep phase’ right at the end can convince us otherwise. Thomas Larcher