The Balkan Chick Fight
Composer: Lana Janjanin
Publisher: Doblinger
$24.00
| Movement/Section | Duration: 4.5 |
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From the Preface:
"This piece was commissioned as a part of a gender project, in which all the composers and performers were to be women only. The choice of instruments was determined by the organizers of the project.Since the female gender was the focus of the project, I wanted it to reflect on the piece itself, creating a story told among women. One very stereotypical image of a woman is the one of her being engaged in a verbal fight (for example with her husband, nagging over trivial, everyday matters).
A more modern variation of such an image, popularized by American media and popular culture, is the so-called “chick fight” (chick: slang: often offensive. A term used to refer to a girl or young woman), where a woman fights against one or more other women, be it verbally or physically. Unlike male fighting, which is perceived as something very aggressive and has, socially speaking, a negative connotation, female fights are not taken as serious and harmful. On the contrary—they are often laughed at and even encouraged by men, who find the image of women quarrelling very entertaining. There is an almost humoristic connotation to them.
Having an ensemble consisting of women only, and being personally fond of using humor in my compositions, I arrived at the idea of writing a witty piece telling the story of a “chick fight” through music. I also incorporated elements of Balkan folk music—the music of my roots. Thus, the “Balkan” part of the title refers to the stylistic expression of the piece, although it can also (but not necessarily) symbolize a fight between two Balkan women—thus spicing up the whole story with the well-known fiery character of Balkan women.
DRAMATURGICAL CONCEPT & PERFORMANCE INSTRUCTIONS
The composition should tell the following story:
The clarinet and the basset horn are two solo instruments whose range and technical abilities should serve the players as a competitive tool against one another. They engage in a show-off/competition against each other, playing the same theme through different variations. Thus, from bars 6 to 39, the clarinetist and the basset horn player should perform in a very theatrical, soloist manner, openly showing their rivalry towards each other. The pianist during this whole time plays the role of the accompanist. After a short break in bar 39 there are a few bars of “confusion”—the two soloists join and lead a quasi-conversation with the pianist.In bar 46 the piano unexpectedly steals the soloists’ spotlight, playing a virtuosic part with the same theatrical soloist attitude the other two instrumentalists had before. This evokes surprise in the other two players (they should in this moment look at each other with wonder and confusion, even a bit of anger, possibly come close to one another and whisper into each other’s ears, looking at the pianist and mimicking comments such as “What does he think he is doing?! How does he have the nerve to take our spotlight like that?!”).
In bar 57 the piano leads back to the dialogue between the soloists and himself, which lasts until another break in bar 62. A resolution Is expected. The “moral of the story” being that music should serve as a way of having fun and producing careless, positive emotions through joint playing, as opposed to negative and aggressive competitiveness; from bar 63 all the musicians join together in a playful fest of (Balkan) music." -
Performer / Ensemble Link Comments -
Pages: 2
Pages (score): 10
Publisher Code: DO 07379
UPC: 9790012203797
ISBN:
ISMN: 9790012203797
Length: 30 cm
Width: 22.5 cm
Thickness: 0.194 cm
Weight: 100 g
