Apatoa - Alexandre Ouzounoff

APATOA means “South” in Tahitian. This piece was composed as a tribute to György Ligeti's “6 Bagatelles for Wind Quintet”, but also to distance itself as far as possible from the influences of Central European folk writing. So what could be simpler than to go and meet the melodies of the Indian Ocean?

Of course, there's no use of melodies from this distant part of the European continent! Rather, I sought my inspiration in the global figures of its folklore.

The piece is in a single movement. Of course, there's a certain incessant permeability between the musical characteristics of these two regions of the world (Hungary-Oceania), but none of them ever takes over. Moreover, if the final coda distributes forces equally, it will be in a 4/4 time signature - close to jazz codas - where the group repeatedly chants a “frenzied” pulse for 4 bars, to which the instruments respond, each in turn, with their previously presented “soli”.

The work was premiered in March 2025 (Dives-sur-Mer) by the Quintette Grenade, to whom it is dedicated.

Alexandre Ouzounoff

Duration: 10'

Score and parts