Saâ (The Snow Leopard)
op. 106, 2024
For Recorder and baroque ensemble
Duration: 10 min.
Instrumentation:
Recorder (sopran, sopranino, alto, tenor, bass), strings, lute, harpsichord
Commissioned by the city of cologne
World premiere within „zamus: early music festival“ on 21.5.2024, Ventana, Cologne
Ensemble 1700
Recorder and Direction: Dorothee Oberlinger
Composer’s Notes
Saâ was commissioned by the city of Cologne for the recorder player Dorothee Oberlinger, to whom the piece is also dedicated. The premiere took place as part of the concert program of Dorothee Oberlinger and her baroque ensemble Ensemble 1700 in the concert “Repeat it!” as part of the “zamus: early music festival” in Cologne.
The composition was inspired by the film “The Snow Leopard”, which describes French nature photographer Vincent Munier’s search to find and photograph the rare snow leopard in the high Tibetan mountains. Saâ is the name of the snow leopard in Tibetan.
The composition is written for soprano, sopranino, alto, tenor, bass recorder and baroque ensemble, which is to be understood as a kind of bourdon. The instrumentation of the ensemble is strings (small string orchestra or string quintet), lute and harpsichord.
Saâ consists of alternating different musical elements, which can be interpreted as dialogs or as action – reaction between recorder and ensemble. Sometimes the ensemble comments on the recorder with a sound surface and sometimes with a suspenseful crackling noise, which evokes the varied moods of the piece.
Different melodies with rhythms from 4/4 to 10/8 are played alternately on the various recorders and a variety of sounds are also created. Until the end, there is a rapid alternation of sound relaxation and tension in the interplay between recorder and ensemble.