Colors for 2 Guitars and Vibraphone
Colors was written shortly after the cello sonata was finished (in
1977), and was completed in less than a month. It was performed for the
first time at the Copenhagen Conservatory, at the same concert as the
sonata.
Colors is a rhapsody of 6 episodes, each episode is named after a
color.
They are, in order: Purple, Orange, Grey, Red, Blue and Black.
The music is an expression for the mood a color indicates, and has
nothing to do with tonality, special chords or that some composers can
see specific colors related to the music.
All episodes are played attacca, there are no interludes or
crossovers/bridges.
Purple is the opening, Orange and Red are faster and more powerful,
Grey (in between them) is meditativo - improvisando, Blue is, well,
blue,
and Black is almost a deconstruction of the music material.
One personal detail: Guitar 2 tunes the low E-string down to a C.
The Finale music notation program simulations (that are used for most of the excerpts), are far from perfect. I could have used recordings from an actual performance, but the simulations provide a neutral interpretation, and together with the score, they give a fairly relevant picture of the music in question.