Lucian Zbarcea – „A Lover’s Promise”, for piano, trumpet and string quintet
The piece is based on a true story of two lovers – therefore the title of the piece – “A lover’s promise” – and the construction of the music.
This is the story: „There were two lovers – one boy and one girl – and their love was so great that they promised they would never cheat on each other and if one of them would do it than he or she should die. Everything was fine until the boy cheated with another girl so the promise took it’s toll. The boy died in a motorcycle accident. Shortly after that happened the girl also died, not being able to live without him” – This story is coming from the island of Bali, Indonesia.
Because of the story the musical piece is structured in 5 different sections:
- First sight: this is the moment when the boy and girl meet for the first time and they fall in love.
- Playing: in this part they play the game of love which is not necessarily so much erotic but can easily be associated with a children game.
- The Promise: here they make the promise that will decide their fate.
- Deceived: the girl learns of the unfaithfulness of the boy when he has the accident.
- Last sight: The final part of the piece, representing the last moment they saw each other and their spirits vanishing – remembering the promise.
Because of the origin of the story, the most important motive in the piece comes from an ancient Balinese song – modified here in different parts of the piece to meet the requirements of the specific character. From the same reason „ A lover’s promise” has strong influences from the traditional music of Bali at the level of rhythm, harmony, polyphony and melody. And of course the 5 tone modes on which the piece is based are coming from this traditional music.
