TIEBREAK (2010)

TIEBREAK continues Žuraj’s series of works whose titles are taken from aspects of match-play in tennis. A “tiebreak” is a series of games played within a tennis match to determine the winner of a set when the scores are tied at six games each. The first player or team to reach at least seven points with an advantage of at least two points over their opponent breaks the tie and takes the set.

The orchestral work TIEBREAK draws its inspiration from the pressure, uncertainty and resolve that a player feels when entering a tiebreak. At the opening of the work, chords conceived by the composer as vertical aggregates are presented instead as splintered structures that spread raggedly into horizontal sequences of notes, with here and there a single, dissonant interval being sustained. Apart from a couple of bars at the beginning, hardly a single coherent gesture is to be discerned until harp, piano and percussion join forces after several minutes in a series of staggered, tinkling impulses, soon to be joined by woodwinds and brass. This moment of clarity does not last long, as the sheer weight of the ensemble tips the texture back into tutti chaos.