Javier Alejandro Garavaglia

"TT" (Spiel für Tommy und seine Bratsche) for Viola solo (1987)

Genre: Instrumental Music

Duration: ca 7-8 minutes

"TT" (Spiel für Tommy und seine Bratsche) is the first of more works which are all composed with the principle of "Spielen", what in German means "to play". This principle consists of all possible meanings of this word, for example, the election and the combination of the materials, composing itself, the interpretation of the piece, the listening of it, etc.

In this piece, it is about the use of some fixed "objects", that I had proved myself in the viola and that represent the main material of the piece. The duration of this kind of "improvised sounds" is given in seconds, that means that the piece doesn't have normal measures, but only durations in seconds

The 11 Objects are partially ordered to a 12-tone-series and will be varied The series doesn't work here as a structure but only as the "sound generator", whose order will not be always respected, because of the improvising stile of the whole work

Opposite to the "objects" are the "silences", which take a principal role in the whole (so important as the "objects") and are also given in seconds

The note C4 acts as an axis that relates each event with the others

The intervals are taken from the 12 tone series, but there are two whose importance and repetition are outstanding: the major seventh (and its inversion, the minor second) and the minor third.

The rhythms are generally not given, because only the "objects" and "silences" have got an exact duration, but not the events, which are inside them

The piece was dedicated to Tomás (Tommy) Tichauer, my viola Professor from 1982 to 1990 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), who suddenly died because of a heart attack in December 1994.