Par Preference for organ
Commissioned by and dedicated to Susanne Kujala
Fp: Susanne Kujala, Organo Nova, Paavalinkirkko, Helsinki, November 13, 2009
Duration 11 min.
The dramaturgy of Par Préférence (2009) is based on alternating strong contrasts: discontinuous and stable situations, contrasting sonorities, the slow and fast dimension of music. The two extremities "sudden" and "lava" take turns through the piece. The discontinuous "sudden" material makes use of strong acoustic phenomena and includes abrupt cuts, bursts, dense and large masses. Contrarily, the seamless "lava" material proceeds smoothly from one situation to another. In the beginning unisono notes of different tunings are used to make "lava" vibrate until it is interrupted by "sudden" material. Occasionally "lava" is stretched into a lengthy "pad" in which action occurs in form of slow change of timbre. In the middle of the piece "lava" transforms into points and toccata material, which evolves into bundles and finally into "sudden" material. In romantic organ tradition the term Par Préférence has referred to the wide timbral possibilities of the instrument - the sonority itself carries the meaning.
The piece is dedicated to Susanne Kujala. The composing of the piece has been made possible by the Sibelius Fund.
