La Zebu Forte Overture

Description

Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Violoncello, Contrabass — This work is based on Mozart’s overture to The Magic Flute, breaking down the themes and motives from that overture as well as the famous Queen of the Night aria, “Der Hölle Rache,” and spinning them out of control. While the title seems to be nonsense, it is actually an anagram of “Zauberflöte.” I’m sure that Mozart would have appreciated the humor in this work, even though the harmonic language is quite far removed from the Classical era. The piece opens with repeated E-flats, suggesting the beginning of the main theme of the Magic Flute overture, and it gradually expands outward chromatically, creating gritty dissonances. Other borrowed motives from Mozart creep their way in, as well as complex polyrhythms on the repeated notes. I imitate the structure of Mozart’s overture by writing a fugue (subtitled “Overt Metrical Fugue,” a serendipitous anagram of Magic Flute Overture) using a subject that mashes up all of the disassembled Mozart motives. Gradually, I work in references to the excessively high coloratura part of “Der Hölle Rache,” treating it as a second subject. After the fugue runs its course, I quote small but recognizable parts of the overture almost verbatim, but only from the players farthest away from the conductor tocreate a disembodied sound. The enigmatic title of Roger Zare’s overture is an anagram of Zauberflöte — the work is based on Mozart’s The Magic Flute, breaking down themes from the opera’s overture as well as the Queen of the Night aria, and spinning them out of control. Zare’s charming and clever work includes an “Overt Metrical Fugue,” (a serendipitous anagram of Magic Flute Overture) using a subject that mashes up all of the disassembled Mozart motives. After the fugue runs its course, Zare quotes small but recognizable parts of the overture almost verbatim, but only from the players farthest away from the conductor to create a disembodied sound.