About the creation

The title of my composition is loosely related to the existing Latin expression ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ (“nanos gigantum humeris insidentes”) which means literally discovering truth by building on previous discoveries. However, I chose my own alternative title introducing a slight, distant deviation by using a movement imagery, as I had in my mind a remote, less tactile connection to ‘my giants’ - implying a certain journey in the making on one hand, yet a considerable restrain, with a certain enigmatic puzzle attached to it, raising several possible questions as to who are those giants, why are they casting shadows.

The Three Giants I allude to are the three pillars of contemporary Israeli Art Music, often considered the founding fathers of Israeli 20th century music: they are respectively (in the order of the programming of the piece) - Paul Ben-Haim, Mordecai Seter, Oedoen Partos.

I dedicated each movement to these composers, by borrowing a motif from each of these composers’ oeuvre respectively, using it as anchor to my own composition, a ‘tail’, if you wish, or a ‘shadow’, (following them, like in a detective story). I chose a 5 note ‘pentachord’ - a unique compositional 'signature' I collected from the composers' oeuvres showcasing the compelling compositional take each had on the cultural music environment he was operating in, whether inspired by Israeli folk forms, modal, serial, atonal, developing it as my homage to each of them.

However, there is also a fourth Giant, a grand master of color - a painter, overseeing the entire structure of this piece, providing the overall necessary framework: the nocturnal scenery, the darker colors and palettes

I used and was inspired by (mostly purple, blue, black hues), again, from the founding fathers of Israeli Art of the 20th century: Mordecai Ardon (1896-1992). I titled these three movements after looking at his vivid depiction of Jewish life adopting my imaginary-secret-inner-narrative based on three of his nocturnal adventures, hence the coming full circle to my ‘shadows’ - the sun has already set sail and night is approaching, from the synagogue, the outdoors, the streets, the ghettos; shadows are coming, some of them ominous, some friendly, some are quite inevitable (as Ardon certainly was referring to historic, key events in Judaism).

The piece is 9 minutes long and the movements do NOT have to be played in the order I chose.

Alon Nechushtan