Oswaldo González
Calligrammes
Duration: 14'
Instrumentation details:
piano
violin
violoncello
Calligrammes
Translation, reprints and more
Oswaldo González
Calligrammes
Available digitally
Orchestration: für Violine, Violoncello und Klavier
Type: Dirigierpartitur
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Work introduction
Calligrammes for violin, violoncello and piano.
Calligrammes: Poems of Peace and War by Guillaume Apollinaire is a collection of poems by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880 – 1918) written between 1913 and 1916. Published in 1918, they were dedicated to his friend René Dalize, who died “on the field of honor, 7 May 1917”.
Apollinaire’s Calligrammes is particularly distinguished for how typeface and spatial arrangement of words on the page add to the meaning of certain poems, and make the whole experience so special. These forms of poetic compositions are called “calligrams”.
Poetry plays a central role in the creative process of González’ music.
In the case of Calligrammes for piano trio, two central ideas are explored: letters from the poems are assigned to music sounds (notes) and the forms-designs of the Apollinaire's 'Calligrammes' are imitated in the formal structures of the music.
The European premiere of Calligrammes was done by the Bukolika piano trio at the David Josefowitz Recital Hall at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2018.