Magnus Granberg: Night Will Fade and Fall Apart

Commissioned by Sweden's Thanatosis in December 2020, and written for the six-member Tya Ensemble in 2021, Magnus Granberg's composition "Night Will Fade and Fall Apart" was inspired by two older pieces, like some of his past compositions. So, the new composition's rhythmic materials were extracted from "Tres gentil cuer" and "En l'amoureux vergier" by the late fourteenth century French composer Solage, while its harmonic materials were loosely derived from the 1940's popular song and jazz standard "My Foolish Heart" by Victor Young and Ned Washington. As always with such Granberg extractions, there is no hint of plagiarism as he is adept at reshaping the source materials, not copying them.

Although the piece was written for the Tya Ensemble, this album comprises six tracks in which different instruments play their parts. So the album opens with the forty-four minute "Night Will Fade and Fall Apart (for Ensemble)" followed by the two-and-a-half-minute "Night Will Fade and Fall Apart (for Percussion)," and closes with the thirty-one-and-a-half-minute "Night Will Fade and Fall Apart (For Piano and Vibraphone)." The last track clearly demonstrates that the piano and vibraphone chords comprise the all-important skeleton of the piece. As is typical of Granberg, the full ensemble version allows each instrument enough space for it to be clearly heard, never overcrowding or cluttering up the soundscape. That point is reinforced by the economy and brevity of the individual instrument tracks; so in the ensemble version's forty-four minutes the violin plays for five-and-a-half, the cello for under six.

As an idea, it was inspired to individually lay out the building blocks of the whole piece, which seems akin to spreading out the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle before commencing it. Having heard any of the individual tracks, it is then fascinating to listen for it when playing the ensemble version. As so often with Granberg's works, there is no end to the pleasure which his music brings.

 

 

 

 

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