About the creation

Folía was composed at the instigation of the Israeli player Inbar Solomon.  The work takes as its inspirational points of departure the old theme of ‘Les Folies d’Espagne’ and the literal meaning of the word in Latin languages (“craziness”). The old theme comes out in the work in two ways. In the first, by the obsessional appearance of a textual high pitched -but much slow-downed -version of the theme piecemeal during the whole piece. In the second, by leaning on the soprano and bass melodic pitch codes of the theme. Those codes share the same structure but at different proportions -the melody in half and full steps and the bass in full steps and fourths- and act as an inner subconscious DNA to the work.   The literal meaning aspect of "Folia" is expressed by the attempt to portray a multifaceted deranged “personality” in which different moods and characters co-exist simultaneously, perhaps without any perceptive harmony, but in a synergic and organic way. The use of 7 different recorders (from Garklein to Bass) concretizes this “split personality” addressing the performer to the different instruments and registers in addition to the use his/her own voice and own gestural sounds.   Ruben Seroussi