[#240] February 26, 2024
1989 | Wind Octet | Grade 5 | 10’ – 15’ | Chamber Work
Don Giovanni’s Dream by Czech composer and educator Ivana Loudová is our Composition of the Week.
“The composition was written in 1989, commissioned by the Triebensee Blazers Ensemble to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Their patron is the Czech composer and conductor Josef Triebensee (1772-1846), whose beautiful arrangements of Mozart operas have been performed often by chamber wind ensembles around the world. My favorite arrangement is that of Don Giovanni for a classic wind octet. I wanted to create something like a “pendant” to this work, to make a “dream fantasy” of the story of Don Giovanni. With the oboe as a primary solo voice, this fantasy reveals itself in a series of soloist passages and ensemble episodes. These tutti passages are meant to share a timbre with more traditional, classical works, like those of Josef Triebensee.” Don Giovanni’s Dream has a duration of 10 minutes, and it is scored for Oboe, English-Horn, 2 Bassoons, 2 Clarinets and 2 Horns. The music is edited by Edition Compusic Amsterdam. Program Notes by Ivana Loudová
Ivana Loudová began her musical life as a pianist. Her mother was her first teacher and would often scold young Ivana for trying to “improve” the classics she was taught, telling her if “you want it to be different, then write it yourself, separately.” Loudová heeded her mother’s advice, and her compositional career began. Loudová studied at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts under Miloslav Kabeláč and Emil Hlobil. She later studied in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and André Jolivet.
Ivana Loudová wrote orchestral and chamber music, as well as music for the voice and film/stage. She obtained an honourable mention in Mannheim for the composition Rhapsody in Black and won at the Guido d'Arezzo International Polyphonic Competition in Italy in 1978, 1980 and 1984. In the choral area, she wrote the Vocal Symphony in 1965 and later wrote children's choral works such as the prize-winning Little Christmas Cantata. She also wrote music for the American Wind Symphony Orchestra and other orchestral works.
Beginning in 1992 Ivana Loudová taught composition on the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague. She was one of today’s most prolific Czech composers. She was praised for her innovative use of timbre and rhythm, especially in her treatment of percussion.
Other works for winds include:
Hymnos (1972) for wind and percussion instruments. 10’
Concerto for percussions, organ, and wind orchestra (1974). 12’
Magic Concerto (1976) for xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, and wind orchestra. 8’
Dramatic Concerto (1970), for solo percussion and Wind Orchestra. 14’
Quintetto giubiloso per ottoni (1977).12’
Musica Festiva (1980), 3 trumpets and 3 trombones. 12’
Luminous Voice (1986), concerto for English horn, wind and percussion instruments.13’
Cassazione (1991) for 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, and tuba. 2’
More on Ivana Loudová