Chiaroscuro

A cinematic exploration of tonal and orchestral color.

Performed by the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra (reading session), Imantas Jonas Šimkus, conducting

“Chiaroscuro” is an Italian term meaning “light/dark”. It has been most famously applied to renaissance painting styles where artists play with (and exaggerate) shadows and highlights to create a heightened sense of drama. It’s also used in vocal technique to describe a singing tone that is both brilliant and warm.

This piece was my thesis project for my masters degree in composition at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. I am a tonal composer who loves his tonic, and so the goal of this composition was to explore the light and dark sides (both modally and spectrally) of the tonal language and see how far I could push it. You’ll hear an insistent D-note throughout the piece — sometimes obviously, other times subtly — and I sought to make the music dance around it in various surprising ways.