Tetris
General Info
Year: 2009
Duration: c. 18:00
Difficulty: V (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Lior Novak Music
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental
Movements
1. Keep Moving - 4:40
2. Gutter People
3. Getting Busy
4. Keeping Busy
Instrumentation
Full Score
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II
Horn in F I-II
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
For the Hindemith Wind Quintet. Commissioned by the Hochschule für Musik, Mainz, with kind support from the Annie Eisler Lehmann Stiftung.
- Program Note from score
Tetris for double wind quintet was written during fall 2009 in New York City. The city, with its fast pace of life, neurotic flowing, continuous stream of people, traffic and information, serves as the inspiration for this piece.
Watching from the side, the fast-moving people appeared to me like robots controlled by an above force, mechanically moving from one place to another, fighting against the clock, against the part of the brain that says “Relax!” and against each other: survival in a jungle of brick walls and tall buildings.
It seemed to me that people could not enjoy a full basic inhale/exhale process. Good breathing consumes too much time ... people were constantly looking for ways to juggle between many things at the same time. They seemed to me like Tetris players who try to match the bricks to a certain pattern, constantly in demand to increase speed. Though to the stranger this pace of life looks fascinating and exciting, I felt that deep inside things look a bit different, quite tragic.
The piece consists of four connected sections: Keep Moving, Gutter People, Getting Busy, and Keeping Busy. The first and fourth movements refer to the continuous, breathless pace of life. The third movement is a short satire about restless people. The second movement is inspired by the thousands of people who spend all their life in the cellar of a restaurant or shop after immigrating from far away, only to serve the ever-hurrying people above them.
Tetris was written for the Hindemith Woodwind Quintet. It was commissioned by the Hochschule für Musik, Mainz with kind support from the Annie Eisler Lehmenn Stiftung.
- Program Note by composer
Media
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Hartt School (Hartford, Conn.) Foot in the Door Ensemble (Glen Adsit, conductor) – 22 February 2019 (CBDNA 2019 National Conference, Tempe, Ariz.)
- The Hartt Wind Ensemble (West Hartford, Conn.) (James Jackson, conductor) – 28 September 2018
- New England Conservatory (Boston, Mass.) Wind Ensemble (Charles Peltz, conductor) – 15 February 2018
- Hudson Valley (N.Y.) Chamber Winds (Adam Fontana, conductor) – 3 March 2012 (CBDNA 2012 Eastern Division Conference, College Park, Md.)
- Hindemith Quintett and The Israel Quintet – December 2011
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Gleams from the Bosom of Darkness (2002)
- Tetris (2009)
Resources
- Battisti, F. (2012). Winds of Change II - The New Millennium: A Chronicle of the Continuing Evolution of the Contemporary American Wind/Band Ensemble. Meredith Music Resource: Delray Beach, Fla.
- Lior Navok website Accessed 23 July 2023
- Lior Navok. Wikipedia.