A musical "Taj Mahal", or how to immortalize love

Remember my last entry about me being stuck in my big work, and that my piano piece "In the Nick(s) of Time" saved me? Well, I'm gonna talk about it now. What I am writing now is a Chamber Symphony, for 10 instruments. It's commissioned by Prof. Dr. B.J. Habibie, Indonesia's third president and now retired from politics but still very active in the field of technology (he is a brilliant engineer and THE person who made Indonesia's first airplane back in the last century). .............................................................................................................................................. Why a chamber symphony ? Well the commission is a kind of "musical monument" to commemorate Mr. Habibie's late wife who died recently, Mme. Ainun Habibie. The love between them has been legendary, it's been written by Mr. Habibie himself, and even made into a film. So, this is like a commission from Shah Jehan to build Taj Mahal to immortalize his wife. This time, the Taj Mahal is not a building, but a musical one. The title for now is "Chamber Symphony, in memory of Mrs. Ainun Habibie". Mr. Habibie himself explicitly asked me that this should not only be a monument to cherish her memory, but also to cherish the love between them. Therefore, I use my usual method of using names as the main motif of the work : H.A.B.I.B.I.E and A.I.N.U.N . .............................................................................................................................................. Why 10 instruments? It's because it will be performed in The Habibie's library for its world premiere, on August 11th which is the birth date of Mme. Ainun. When he asked me to do that, I immediately went to the place of its premiere, and so it's tailor-made for the occasion. The instrumentation will be for flute, oboe (doubling english horn), clarinet, piano, percussion, harp, string quartet. Since it has a very reduced instrumentation, all parts are quite virtuosic, so it requires highly trained musicians and needs (for the time being, at least) a conductor, which will be me for the world premiere. When you learn about the instrumentation, you might realize that the loudness of each instruments might be inherently unbalanced with each other, so indeed I am very careful in that. The challenge is how to make an illusion of a grand work played by a small group. However, the performance of the winner of Ananda Sukarlan Award Piano competition last week, Anthony Hartono, inspired me a lot, and I will give more prominence to the piano part. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was so impressed with his performance, but the whole audience too. After the announcement of the winner last week, I immediately asked him if he would be available to do that, and luckily he would be. Another thing that inspires me is that Anthony is at the moment very much in love with his girlfriend, so one could feel it in the air during the competition. Together they make such a beautiful couple, that touched me deeply too. .............................................................................................................................................. I did listen to several chamber symphonies before I determine the structure and instrumentation of the work. Mostly the major ones in musical history : Arnold Schoenberg's 2 Chamber Symphonies, and that masterpiece of masterpieces of chamber music: Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" that never fails to amaze me, how the 25 minutes pass by as if it were much shorter. However, I realized that I can't listen to music anymore like a "normal" person listens to music. I am sure people are touched by beautiful melodies and harmonies, but I am touched by the intervals, the permutation of notes and how sections contrast each other. Musical anagrams work hyperactively in my head. I wonder if my Asperger Syndrome has something to do with it. Anyway, I am so immersed writing it, and it's a nice challenge for me to write intricate polyphonies for such a reduced instrumentation, so it's not improbable that there will be a Chamber Symphony no. 2. :)