Movements
1 Fanfare
2 Hommage to Satie
3 Canon
4 The mysterious flute
5 Hommage to Ferdinand Cheval
6 Fanfare revisited
7 Three Riens

Martijn Padding

Review Pan
MARTIJN PADDING – ONE FLUTE
Broekmans & Van Poppel © 2019
This piece for solo flute was written for Thies Roorda in 2019/20. Martijn Padding is a well-established
Dutch composer, who studied with Louis Andriessen and is currently Head of Composition at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
One Flute is a collection of different movements, all of which  are full of intelligence and craft. This is well-written music, but it’s also clever music, with compositional processes logically conceived and a clarity of thought apparent throughout. For all its intellectual appeal, though, the piece is also musically satisifying; there’s no sense of style over substance here, and Padding writes well for the flute, revealing a sense of wit which comes through successfully as a result of a knowledgeable and creative approach to the instrument.
The opening Fanfare asks for a sense of drive and a raw sound, with microtonally flattened F sharps
adding to the music’s char- acter. The movement is built out of 12 different phrases, which come together to form a single, directed line, and the composer offers several options of how the material can be performed. Next comes a Homage to Erik Satie which goes a long way beyond the almost clichéd versions of the Gymnopédies that we sometimes hear from other composers; Padding explores Satie’s sense of humour, love of repetition and background as a cabaret pianist. Another example of a well-executed compositional process is the Canon 5:11, where a two-voice texture is
produced through dynamics and articulations. The title comes from the use of two time signatures
(although the notation itself is much simpler than this might suggest)—5/16 and 11/16—for the different voices.
The other movements are contrasting in character and full of surprises—I won’t spoil them all by
revealing all of the secrets here, but suffice it to say that this is a piece that made me think, and smile, and want to delve much deeper into its world.
CARLA REES »
MARCH 2023 | PAN 59

Listen to the recording Thies Roorda made of the seven movements of ‘One Flute’.
Just click on the title to start.

A recording of Martijn Padding’s spectacular new work for flute solo ‘One Flute’ can now be heard on YouTube, Apple Music and many other streaming sites.

Fanfare

Hommage to Satie

Canon

The mysterious flute

Hommage to Ferdinand Cheval

Fanfare revisited

Three Riens

Thies Roorda
Webdesign: Wout van den Berg

Photography: Annelies van der Vegt & Wout van den Berg

©April 2018
Share This