6 Pop Themes

Luiz Castelões, composer
Donald Berman, pianist

This work revisits 6 obsessions of the Pop realm:

The first movement evokes mechanical bells, such as the ones we hear during Christmas. 

The second movement approaches the idea of "melody," and contrasts it to the abruptness of a frenzied "gesture."

The third movement features an imaginary birdsong, built from the ambiguity of the word "series" (present in both "harmonic series" and "dodecaphonic series").

The fourth movement is a microcatalogue of musical onomatopoeia, featuring birds, a car horn, a doorbell, a knock at the door, and its opening.

The fifth movement explores the ambiguity between the sounds of doorbells and bells.

The sixth movement is an ironic, abrupt finale - danceable and singable.

This work and its premiere were made possible by a generous commission from The Ecce Ensemble in 2020, and is dedicated to the pianist Donald Berman and to John Aylward.