Page 153 - GTMF 2024 Season Program

August 9 & 10
PROGRAM NOTES

Melody Eötvös

Pyramidion

AT A GLANCE

Born: 1984
Date of Composition: 2022
Instrumentation: Pyramidion
is scored for 3 flutes (1 doubling
piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling
English horn), 3 clarinets
(1 doubling bass clarinet),
3 bassoons (1 doubling
contrabassoon), 4 horns,
3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba,
timpani, percussion, piano,
harp and strings.

“Ancient Egyptian relics have
always fascinated me,” writes
Melody Eötvös, “and I find them
ruthlessly inspiring.” Described
by composer Steven Mackey as a
composer of ancient music—old
pagan flavors, but new in mindset
and expression—Australian Melody Eötvös — Photo by Grant Heger
composer Melody Eötvös found
her inspiration for a short,
seven-minute fanfare in an object of the composition is to portray a Eötvös in response to a question
known as a pyramidion, which is punchy, angular entity that feels about music and the other senses.
the small pyramid found atop unified through the repetition “I have been inspired by old
a larger pyramid or obelisk. and development of the opening masters and new video when
(There’s one at the top of the motif,” she explains. composing… I do see music
Washington Monument.) Eötvös reaches far, wide and deep relating to the visual sense, and

A pyramidion is small but plays for her inspirations. Among those the senses of smell and taste. It’s
a critical role in the scheme of is Renaissance music, especially a sensory partnership!”
things: it is the capstone that the works of John Dowland. Her But how much of that translates
“brings the entire pyramid to Hungarian ancestry plays an to the actual act of composition?
a point at the same angle and important part, of course. Ancient Eötvös herself doesn’t always
proportions as the main body,” music, literature, painting, know. “When I’m writing a piece,
says Eötvös. And in that sculpture, architecture: she “seeks it often ends up ‘writing itself,’
statement comes the internal the grain of sand in the oyster.” so when I manage to create a
engine that drives her 2022 Nor does she restrict herself to moment in a work, whether it’s
Pyramidion, written on a dual aural influences. Everything is powerful or triggers emotions,
commission from the Sydney grist for the mill. “There is no I typically don’t go back and
Symphony Orchestra and Grand doubt that audio is powerful when analyse how I did it.”
Teton Music Festival. “The goal combined with the visual,” says

Summer 2024 gtmf.org 151