A musical birthday present for Lera Auerbach
One Minute Symphony by young composition student Annija Zarina
On Friday, October 20, a special One Minute Symphony written by the young composition student Annija Zarina will be heard at the Concert Hall in Amare . This time not a meeting turned into music but a short composition written especially for the Lera Auerbach Festival, specifically the concert that this composer, poet, artist and pianist gives together with the Residentie Orkest. Where did Zarina get her inspiration and how did she manage to capture Auerbach's versatility in notes?
Lera Auerbach is one of the great composers of our time. Yet the Russian-American Auerbach is still relatively unknown here, which is a shame. All the more fortunate that in October she is coming to celebrate her 50th birthday in The Hague, including the Dutch premiere of her Fifth Symphony by the Residentie Orkest conducted by the composer himself. As a birthday present, the orchestra is offering her a One Minute Symphony, written by composition student Annija Zarina. She found "writing for another composer a fascinating challenge. Although we both share the same artistic medium of expression, our individual approaches can be vastly different. In this particular case, I found it especially important to balance Auerbach's work while remaining true to my own artistic voice. This meant that I had to get to know her work well, but that in the final composition there were only subtle hints of that."
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Musical translation
The composer does not go overnight when it comes to the search for inspiration. "It is for me to spend enough time thinking and searching for an idea and musical material that seems worth studying and developing ideas from it. To get into an organic and fluid workflow, I have to feel a real fascination with the original material. Because of this, the initial phase of my composition process consists mainly of spending a lot of time at the piano and trying to get into a state of mind where I can completely surrender. I think it's important in this phase not to be too decisive about anything and to really be open to the things that come my way. The next phase is more structural and gives more room to question the next decisions."
"Writing for another composer is a fascinating challenge!"
- Annija Zarina
Auerbach as inspiration
"When I received this assignment, I naturally wanted to know more about the versatile Lera Auerbach. I knew her music but all her other disciplines were still unknown to me; at the same time, that did give me a lot of freedom to choose where I could draw inspiration from. It was also important for me to consider the concert program. Since Auerbach's Fifth Symphony 'Paradise Lost' was being premiered in the Netherlands, I immediately wondered if there was a connection to John Milton's epic poem of the same name. This was true, and this prompted me to search for my own connection to this work. As I examined Auerbach's reflections on her composition, I came across a statement that according to her, paradise can mean different things in different stages of life. This idea, that paradise can be a fluid and evolving concept related to the different stages of one's life, served as inspiration for me. Since harmony and pitch are the most important parameters in my music, I associated the idea of paradise with the presence of all twelve pitches found in Western tuning. Through a twelve-tone chord, I created the whole form and harmonic structure of the piece."
In medias res
"My One Minute Symphony for Auerbach is called In the midst of. I realized that Paradise Lost by John Milton follows the classical tradition of beginning in medias res (in the midst of things). In this, a story begins not at the beginning or the end, but somewhere in the middle. The exposition of the story is thus bypassed and filled in gradually, through dialogue, flashbacks or descriptions of past events. This concept intrigued me and made me wonder how it could be translated through music. That became the starting point for my composition. Although it is a relatively short piece, I hope it becomes clear that it is very important for me not to be afraid to take my time with the idea I am presenting. And that the work creates a challenging environment for the listener."