Fantajia

From Wind Repertory Project
Chang-Su Koh

Chang Su Koh


General Info

Year: 2016
Duration: c. 8:15
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bravo Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $250.00   |   Score Only (print) - $50.00


Instrumentation

Piccolo (doubling Flute III)
Flute I-II
Oboe
English Horn
Bassoon (div.)
E-flat Clarinet
B-flat Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium (div.)
Tuba (div.)
String Bass
Piano
Harp
Timpani
Percussion (4 Players), including:

  • Bass Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Guiro
  • Glockenspiel
  • Marimba
  • Snare Drum
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Tambourine
  • Tam-Tam
  • Triangle
  • Whip
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Fantajia is the culmination of a five-year commissioning project between Chang Su Koh and Baylor University. As the title (meaning “fantasia”) suggests, the work has a free and unrestricted quality, with musical elements ranging from the lugubrious to the frenetic.

The opening statement is presented with a crack of a whip and muted brass in a rhythmic outline of the tonality and harmonic language to be used throughout the work. A slow and ominous musical gesture emerges that emphatically builds with tempo and robustness until it reaches an apex of energy and excitement. A new theme spirals out and seemingly escapes the clutches of the former section. This B section shows Mr. Koh’s affinity for the diametric opposition of duple versus triple pulses that creates a sense of metric turbulence and agitation. The music takes the listener on a whirlwind adventure, while the composer intersperses material that foreshadows what is to come.

The music winds down into a new slower middle section. It features a beautiful melody (heard in the solo oboe) that is at times mournful, angst-ridden, yet often hopeful. The music rises and falls and slowly perpetuates [sic] into a powerful, majestic moment, but always gripping onto the tension and pain. Then, as if to start again, the menacing material from the opening is heard, this time slower and with more veracity, gaining in momentum. This gives way to a reprise of the B section, but with more agitation and difficulty than its first presentation. The tension builds until a new section emerges, featuring the beautiful slower melody of before but now presented by brass voices and accompanied by the woodwinds. which play a tempestuous stream of fast notes in support. The music finally emerges from all the chasing and relentless pursuit into a triumphant moment of glorious broadness, as if it had overcome the greatest odds. Then, as if to suggest the difficulties are not quite done, the material from the beginning appears again, and in true fantasia-like style, ends as if there is more to come.

- Program Note from Baylor University Symphonic Band concert program, 3 February 2017


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

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Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

None discovered thus far.