Commissioned by musica viva des Bayerischen Rundfunks for a live performance initially slated for December 3, 2021, the Covid-19 lockdown measures meant that the world premiere of this work for accordion and orchestra by Francesca Verunelli (2020 Ernst von Siemens Composer’s Prize) was postponed until the 2022-2023 season. The right time has finally arrived.

Accord, Chord and Tune (2021)

per accordeon e orchestra
Kompositionsauftrag der musica viva des Bayerischen Rundfunks

WP: 12.05.2023 | Munich, Herkulesaal
BRSO, Franck Ollu conductor, Krassimir Sterev accordeon

Composer's notes

The title Accord, Chord and Tune hones in on the density of the sound experience and its apparently discombobulated aspects.
Accord(ion) refers to the tuning of the orchestra, along a naturally harmonic space – it’s got to be right, microtonal – as well as the instrumental corpus that expresses this accord. Which is to say, the accordion.
Such an accord is created in-between the harmonic space generated and inhabited by the accordion and harmony in a strictly musical sense, in terms of coexistence of vertical structures (chords) and horizontal structures (tunes).
Line, harmony and instrumental corpus – pitch included – become a single, unmistakable entity. That’s what the title is all about – the fusion of perceptive and intellectual experiences. While listening tends to dissociate comprehension from learning, and the structural explanation from the sensual impression of the irradiation of a body of sound, this performance seeks a common root for these dichotomies.
The accordion expresses an array of sound over time, as well as a writing of that time. Harmonic, melodic, formal. It’s the synthesis of an orchestral sound. Vice versa, the sonorous complexity is not discernible from the sound of the orchestra (composed as a synthesis, with sounds layered in a sine curve to create a new sound organism). In the end, a listening journey where there’s no separation between structure, arrangement, solos, orchestra, overall sound, matter and form.

Francesca Verunelli

photo: © Rui Camilo