Concerto da Camera "La Folia"

Michael Melzer - flute, Muki Zohar - oboe, Mauricio Paez - bassoon, Alon Reuven - horn | Israel Camerata Jerusalem | Conductor: Andrew Lawrence-King (2001)

The work, which was commissioned by the Israel Camerata Jeruslaem and written while a fellow in VCCA, Virginia, USA, derives its inspiration from the traditional melodic – harmonic – rhythmic pattern called “La Folia” which served as a framework for dozen of works written since the Renaissance to the present day. The name’s origin relates to the fact that, at first it served as pattern for music and dance in which the dancers became ecstatic, and seemingly struck by madness.

In my treatment of this traditional form, I tried to derive my ideas from its typical melodic structure, its basic rhythmic character and its dance-like origin as well as form the obsessive, everlasting repetition of the basic pattern while making changes and variations, in my own language.

The Work consists of four movements: Fast-slow-fast-slow, with the first three almost connected and the fourth independent.

This last movement is in the form of a funeral march in which I tried to express my feelings and pain in regard to the collapse of the process and the loss we are experiencing in the present era.