Offering of the Five Senses (2006) by Nicolas Scherzinger Duration: 10 minutes for solo guitar Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.
LISTEN Above performance is by Kenneth Meyer. * The audio files on this page are purposefully incomplete. These tracks are excerpts taken from Kenneth Meyer's CD DRAW THE STRINGS TIGHT. You can find the complete audio files at Kenneth Meyer, Draw the Strings Tight. click here to go back to LIST OF WORKS page MUSIC - download a PDF copy Click here (Full Score) to download a copy of the published score. All PDF copies are made available for free, through the support of volunteer donations. The composer is very grateful for the goodwill and generosity that is expressed by any donation. Click on the PayPal link below to make a donation with a major Credit Card. Suggested donation $10-15 MUSIC (SCORE and PARTS) - order a hardcopy To order a hard copy of the music, please contact Nicolas Scherzinger directly (email below). A paypal option to order hard copies of music will be available soon (2012). Send an email to Nicolas Scherzinger directly, with
the title of the piece you would like to order. NOTE: whether you download a copy of the score,
or order a hardcopy, if you decide to perform the piece in public, please
let me know about it via email, or even send me a program. click here to go back to LIST OF WORKS page PROGRAM NOTE Offering of the Five Senses (2006) is a series of five pieces or movements for solo guitar. Each movement is loosely based on one of the five qualities of enjoyment (or five senses) from Tibetan Buddhist practice. In order, the five symbols for the senses are mirror, representing sight which captures form, lute, representing a sweet sound that soothes the ears and delights the mind, incense, representing smell or pleasant fumes arising, fruit, representing sweet taste, and silk, representing smooth, cool touch. The titles of each movement are in the original Tibetan, me-long, pi-wang, spos-snod, shing-tog, and dar. What struck me about the senses listed in this order is the purely musical implication of the set, and though I initially began my work by trying to depict each sense, the piece is not intended to be programmatic, nor is it intended to be religious or spiritual in nature, though music often has its own spiritual power, and that is probably a topic for a dissertation. These five senses or qualities of enjoyment make a wonderful resource for musical setting, with the specific reference to a lute, and the symbolism of the number five. The piece has five movements, the interval of the 5th plays an important role throughout the piece, and much of the harmony is often based on five-note collections. In the second movement, I decided to quote a John Dowland lute song, “Mr. Dowland's Midnight,” for I could think of no one better to represent the sweet sound of this instrument. This piece was composed in the summer of 2006 for guitarist Kenneth Meyer, and the piece is dedicated to him with much admiration and thanks. I would also like to thank the Barlow Endowment for their generous support through a 2005 commission.
|
