Vytautas Barkauskas

Intimate Composition, Op. 15

Year of composition: 1968
Duration: 09′
Instrumentation: ob solo-str orch[4.3.2.2.1]

LP Mel C10-15775, 1981
CD Juozas Rimas. Lithuanian Auletics. – Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre, LMIPCCD018, 2002
CD Lithuanian Music in Context I. Lessons of the Avant-garde. - Vilnius, Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LMIPCCD065-066, 2011


According to the composer, György Ligeti’s Atmosphères (1961) once left a great impression on him and had influenced the sonic landscape of this particular composition. This rigidly calculated music is based on a limited, accurately organized aleatory. Each one of the string instruments (of which there are twelve, corresponding to the number of notes in an octave) is autonomous, and the whole is reminiscent of a buzzing beehive. This background illuminates the timbre of an oboe, creating an intimate soundscape of its own.

Eglė Gudžinskaitė