Conservatoire of Antwerp (Belgio)
Award conferred for the contemporary composition ‘Remember... no march in March’, within the IVME Composers Competition, organized by the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp (Belgium).
The piece is inspired by the polyphonic language of Thomas Crecquillon, specifically the work ‘Jamais en ce monde n’aurai’, an author belonging to the Franco-Flemish school active in the first half of the 16th century.
The contemporary compositional approach aims to merge, in a single brief study, certain melodies derived from the original work with melodic lines produced through procedures suggested by purely mathematical aspects—for example, the series formed by a specific number of G notes within the twenty-five measures of the piece, the quantity of eighth notes across the four vocal lines, or the analysis of the rests scattered throughout Crecquillon's composition.
Therefore, although the expansion into the numerical dimension represents an important aspect of ‘Remember... no march in March!’, it remains fundamental in the attempt to offer the listener a work in which melody takes a leading role—both as the fruit of a composer's genius from five centuries ago and as a result of a thorough analysis of the rhythmic and sonic parameters of the source material.
The prominence of the melody is also intended as a tribute to Thomas Crecquillon and his music, as melodic invention represents one of the most significant stylistic features of the Flemish compositional aesthetic.
