Bohdana Frolyak | Sad Song | 2023 | 12´
Duo percussion & piano
Photo - Наталія Кожушко
Link for the score | Composer's website
"Sad Song" for saxophone quartet and percussion is a composition written in 2023 for the renowned percussionist Konstantyn Napolov and the Amstel Saxophone Quartet as part of the Dutch Golden Collection. Commissioned with the support of the Dutch Golden Collection Foundation and Amstel Quartet. Later, a version of the piece was created for piano and percussion.
As I mentioned in the annotation for another piece written during the same period, all the music I am currently composing is about Ukraine, its beauty, its uniqueness. In this piece, it's also about its pain, its sorrow, and the sounds that resonate with Ukraine. Despite the overall meditative character of the music, the composition has a dramatic culmination, even tragic, built on a quote from the Lemko folk song "Plyne kacha," which became a tragic symbol of the Maidan - the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14, and the tragic death of many Ukrainians later named the Heavenly Hundred.
The conclusion of the piece is enlightened, quiet, peaceful, and clear, like a soft melody, a gentle whisper, the quiet rustling of leaves, a mother's lullaby to a child. It is a sad song about Ukraine that eventually becomes clear and bright.