Continuum III - Fantasies for a Blue Bassoon für Fagott und Kammerensemble

"Continuum III" is the third in a row of compositions which have one defining musical element in common: the gravitation of musical events around a central tone, which in each case is the point of departure for the development of the individual pieces. The other two compositions are: “Continuum I – Everything is True” (written in 1989 for bass clarinet, trombone and string quartet), and “Continuum II – Dance with the Devil” (written in 1994 for soprano saxophone and string quartet). “Continuum III” could be described as interconnected “variations for bassoon and chamber orchestra”, thereby forming a one-movement piece of about 14 minutes in length. Like all of my concert music pieces, “Continuum III” features groove-oriented sections which are inspired by musical styles such as jazz, rock & roll, electronica and different kinds of world music. Harmonic and structural elements are influenced by 20th century concert music.   Gernot Wolfgang

 

“... a work successfully traversing that risky bridge between jazz and classical, with integrity intact ... the piece – an impressive first orchestral effort for the composer – deftly moves across stylistic boundaries, alternating suggesting the terse harmonic language of contemporary classical music and such jazz influences as Gil Evans’ work with Miles Davis and the general musical thought train of Austria’s greatest gift to jazz, Joe Zawinul. It opens and closes with murmuring, microtonal string activity, crisply puntuated by syncopated lines and active percussion parts... a last emphatic climactic finale is a tease, followed up by a trickling residue of soft sonic activity, drifting into the ether.”   Josef Woodard, Santa Barbara News-Press