Marimbaphon (Schlagzeugkonzert No.3 Die Schöpfung)

Percussion Concerto No.3 Genesis exists in 4 different versions: the Original 2011 version for Marimba and Symphony Orchestra, the 2014 chamber version for Marimba and Piano, the 2017 chamber version for Marimba, String Orchestra (or String Quintet) and 2 Percussionists (with optional Organ), and the 2020 chamber version for Marimba and Organ. All these versions are available separately by Universal Edition and can be obtained from this publisher via the website and distributors. This is the 2017 chamber version.

Georgiev - Percussion Concerto No.3 Genesis for marimba and orchestra | Universal Edition

Georgiev - Percussion Concerto No.3 Genesis for marimba, organ and optional 2× percussion | Universal Edition

Georgiev - Percussion Concerto No.3 Genesis for marimba and piano | Universal Edition

Percussion Concerto No.3 Genesis was commissioned by the Municipality of the City of Varna, Bulgaria, in 2011, for the prominent Amsterdam-based virtuoso Tatiana Koleva, winner of the Gaudeamus Interpreters Prize and Darmstadt Kranichsteiner Musikpreis and professor in Marimba/Percussion at the Rotterdam and Groningen Conservatoires. Koleva and Georgiev are both Varna-born, and graduates of the National High School of Arts 'Dobri Christov' in their native city (on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, one of the oldest cities in Europe with illustrious ancient culture, known by the oldest golden jewellery in the world (5000 BC), and prominent Roman and later Bulgarian history), and they both share particular relationship with the Marimba, which was also the main instrument of the composer/conductor, who is a recipient of numerous awards as a percussionist in the past. The world premiere of the concerto was given by Tatiana Koleva and the Varna State Opera Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, alongside works by Mozart and Tchaikovsky, at the Varna State Opera House on 26 October 2011, which accidentally coincided with the 55th birthday of composers' father, Georgi Georgiev, to whom the concerto is dedicated. The first recording was produced by the Bulgarian National Radio featuring Tatiana Koleva and the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer, in 2014.

The concerto facilitates Georgiev's signature technique for composition, Morphing Modality, which he developed within his PhD research in Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, University of London (2012). The technique is informed by the image morphing technique from the visual arts, taking into account particular aspects of music psychology, perception and cognition, and involves a particular approach to ‘modality’ where the monophonic horizontal harmony and modulation from the theory and practice of Bulgarian-Orthodox and Byzantine Chant interacts with particular kinds of morphing texture, inspired by micropolyphony, heterophony, linear polyphony and aleatorics, creating fluid morphing modal harmony. As a whole, the research reflects his quest for a holistic and integral, yet flexible, systematic approach to pitch organization, to enable him to achieve the extreme contrasts in harmony required by his aesthetics generally. In the research the concepts of ‘mode’ and ‘modality’ were broadened and refined practically and theoretically, resulting in a technique where semitonal and microtonal; modal, atonal and quasi-tonal aspects are integrated within a single working method with its system of grounding principles, providing particular opportunities for liberation of all elements of texture from vertical, intervallic, chordal and contrapuntal considerations, while keeping a precise and detailed control over the sense and colour of harmony. The concept of morphing is applied also to rhythm and musical form and employed as a general tool for creating musical processes and creating connections between initially disconnected elements in many aspects of the compositional process. The 3rd Percussion Concerto Genesis was one of the final works created and included in the doctoral research.

The Concerto is a contemplation upon 3 biblical verses in their complex polysemantic, multidimensional plethora of notions, ideas, atmospheres and memories. Each of the 3 interconnected movements is entitled after a biblical verse, the first two from Genesis and the last from the Gospel of St John, as follows: 1. ...and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters 2. And God said, Let there be light 3. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. The musical lexis in its complexity of opposing historical and geographical references, integrates intonations from Bulgarian and Byzantine Orthodox Chant holistically throughout the work, and in the second movement a subtle reference to the medieval Bulgarian Chant Blagoobrazny Yosif as preserved in the Russian sources of Bolgarsky Rospev (Bulgarian Chant) (traced back to its Bulgarian roots by contemporary researchers) is featured in a central cadenza-like passage for the solo Marimba, where the singing quality of the right hand roll and its polyphonic interaction with the left hand, spotlight the unusual combination of features that the Marimba offers as an instrument generally - the refined singing lines, typical of strings, winds and voices on one hand, and the polyphonic capabilities of keyboards on the other. Other central features in the Marimba part are the use of string bows, the 6 mallet sections and a significant variety of mallet types and their nuances.

The first recording was released by ICSM Records, London, to international critical acclaim. The album is available for purchase internationally:

Georgiev: Genesis: Symphonic Works - NaxosDirect

Genesis | ICSM RECORDS

From the press reviews of the album:

Das Orchester 5***** "The CD debut of the young Bulgarian-British musician Martin Georgiev brings us an entirely individual musical narrative world, from London. In it, heaven and earth are reflected."

Limelight **** “a triumph… bold, sophisticated compositional vision executed with brilliance.”

Sound and Vision : “unlike anything else I have heard before”

Fanfare: "Sophisticated, uncompromising yet sonically appealing, the music of British-Bulgarian composer Martin Georgiev (b. 1983) promises to be a prominent voice on the musical landscape. … The recording … is superb. Georgiev is a major new voice"

Pizzicato *** “pictorial and full of fantasy”

Music Web International : “Music with an invitingly gruff and swirling strangeness that trumps and transcends its occasional avant-garde sounds.”