Jaźwinski, Barbara (1950- )
Music of the Blue Winds (6:15) 1995, revised 2020 Publisher: American Composers Edition
Instrumentation: flute, oboe or trumpet in b flat, clarinet, bassoon, piano
The work was premiered by the New York University New Music Ensemble in 1997, and was dedicated to Esther Lamneck and that ensemble. The composition is through composed, highly atonal and presents contemporary jazz influences. It opens with a clarinet held trill note and a single eight note in the piano. From that beginning, the instruments are in dissonance, which grows with each passing chord in the piano. Throughout the whole composition each instrument is treated as a soloist with piano having both solo and accompanimental roles. Each instrumental part presents highly complicated rhythms and chromatic interconnected runs. These complicated lines and shifts of meter make this piece very difficult. The many changes in colors, textures and impressions are established by use of the following devises: lower register clarinet, trills in single or multiple instruments, and florid melodic lines.
Advanced technique, range, and dynamic flexibility are required from all instrumentalists. Good attention to balance is important, especially at times when melodic lines meander between the voices.
Grade: V-VI
Recordings: premiere recording supplied from the composer
Sheet music source: American Composers Alliance
Barbara Jaźwinski
Born in Chorzów on May 14, 1950.
From 1968-1972 she attended Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw majoring in composition and theory. Later, she studied piano and composition at Stanford University and subsequently completed her doctoral study in composition at the City University of New York. Her teachers include: Mario Davidovsky, Andrzej Dobrowolski, Gyorgy Ligeti, and John Chowning. Currently, she is the Head of the Composition Program at the Newcomb Music Department, Tulane University in New Orleans. Jazwinski has been an active performer, conductor and promoter of contemporary music. Since 1988 she has been a music director of “Spectri Sonori,” an award winning concert series dedicated to contemporary music performance. The concert series also sponsored the “Spectri Sonori International Composition Contest.”
Barbara Jazwinski’s compositions were presented at many well-known concert series and festivals such as: 5th Laboratory of Contemporary Music (Siedlce, Poland), New Music Festival, Polish Music Festival in Montreal, Edmonton Composer’s Concert Society, New York University New Music Ensemble, Washington Square Contemporary Music Series, the Fanfare Festival (Queeensland), North/South Consonance and Gegenwelten Festival (Manheim and Heidelberg), 10th Laboratory of Contemporary Music (Warsaw, Poland). Among her compositional awards are: the Prince Pierre of Monaco Composition Award for her “Sextet”, the First Prize in the Nicola De Lorenzo Composition Contest for “Music for Chamber Orchestra” and Special Prize at the First Competition for Improvised Music (Gdańsk, Poland).
Jazwinski is the recipient of numerous commissions, grants and fellowships including commissions from the New York University, New Music Ensemble, Luisiana Music Teachers Association, Esther Lamneck, Louisniana Sinfonietta, New Hudson Saxophone Quartet, Chamber Music Center at the Composer’s Conference at Wellesley College, Quatour Francis Poulenc, and Artist Fellowship from the Louisiana State Arts Council, grants from the Presser Foundation, Newcomb Foundation, Metzner Foundation, Meet the Composer Inc., and several others.