[#290] February 10, 2025
2022 | Clarinet Quartet and Wind Orchestra | Grade 5 | 5’-10’ | Latin Jazz
“Sueño Austral” (Southern Dream), by Argentinian composer, pianist and producer Daniel Freiberg is our Composition of the Week.
“Sueño Austral” is dedicated to the Barcelona Clarinet Players, who commissioned the work. The premiere performance took place on November 12, 2022, at Konzerthaus Freiburg, Germany, by the Barcelona Clarinet Players and the Freiburger Blasorchester, with Miguel Etchegoncelay conducting.
“Sueño Austral” is rooted in the tradition of Argentinian popular music, inspired by rhythmic elements of folk dances, such as the “chacarera” and the “vals criollo”, although these elements are sublimated in a harmonic language linked to contemporary jazz. After a slow introduction, with an enchanting and mysterious character, a ternary rhythm of chacarera surreptitiously makes its way to announce the first thematic element presented by the solo quartet, which will dialogue with the orchestral tutti until the second section; this time in three beats, written as a subtle valse, once again presented by the solo quartet. This brief section prepares the return of the “chacarera” driving rhythm, to conclude the work in a devilish dance with the full orchestra.
The work has a duration of approximately 10 minutes, and it is scored for the following instrumentation:
Clarinet Quartet: Eb Clarinet, Bb Clarinet, Basset Horn, Bass Clarinet in Bb
Wind Orchestra
Scoring is one-on-a-part (except for Bb Clarinets, where more players may be used)
2.Picc.2.3.EbCl.BCl.2/4.3.3.Euphonium.1.Piano.Stringbass.Percussion (see detail below)
Timpani
Percussion 1: Percussion 1, Wood Blocks, Bass Drum, Glockenspiel, Xylophone, Small Triangle, Wind Chimes
Percussion 2: Wind Chimes, Vibraphone, Marimba, Glockenspiel
Percussion 3: Drum Set with Hot Rods sticks and regular sticks.
“Sueño Austral” is Freiberg’s first composition originally for wind orchestra. He has since, transcribed other works for wind ensemble, such as the clarinet concerto Latin American Chronicles.
Sueño Austral has been nominated in 2024 in two categories of the Latin Grammy Awards, Best Classical Contemporary Composition and Best Arrangement.
New York based, award winning composer, arranger, pianist and music producer Daniel Freiberg has spent most of his life at the intersection of the distinct worlds of classical, jazz, rock and Latin American music.
Freiberg grew up in his native Buenos Aires. He began taking classical piano lessons while surrounded by tango, Argentine, Uruguayan, and Peruvian folklore, Brazilian and Rock music. A Dave Brubeck album he received as a birthday present from his high school friends changed his life…he got hooked to Jazz …and decided to move to New York when he was twenty-one years old.
Studying jazz arranging, film scoring and piano with established jazzmen Don Sebesky, Earl Hagen, Jacky Byard, Hal Galper, Gil Goldstein, and Andy Laverne further fed into Freiberg’s eclectic sound. He also studied composition, classical orchestration and contemporary music with Julliard professors Charles Jones, Stanley Wolfe, Edward Bilous and Samuel Zyman. Other composition studies with Gerardo Gandini, Leo Edwards, McNeil Robinson and classical piano with Joan Behrens Bergman while working and learning from one his mentors: Grammy winner and Oscar nominated composer, arranger, producer Jorge Calandrelli.
Thanks to a recommendation by master jazz drummer Ignacio Berroa, Freiberg met his other mentor and lifetime friend: the thirteen-time Grammy Award winner and NEA Jazz Master Paquito D’Rivera, with whom he toured North America and Europe for five years as pianist. Performances include Montreal Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, The Blue Note, The Village Gate, Jazz At Lincoln Center and Town Hall.
Daniel Freiberg’s jazz arrangements have been performed or recorded by Stephane Grapelli, Dizzy Gillespie All Stars Big Band featuring D'Rivera, The Wynton Marsalis Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Regina Carter, Claudio Roditi, WDR Big Band, The Swiss Big Band and Jorge Dalto (featuring Eddy Gómez).
Daniel Freiberg’s composition “For Lenny” is included on D’Rivera’s album “Song for Maura”, winner of the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year and also a Latin Grammy Award. His work can also be heard on albums by popular artists Marc Anthony, José Feliciano, Chayanne, José José, Cristian Castro, Olga Tañón, Ednita Nazario, Cheo Feliciano, Jerry Rivera and Willie Colón.
In 2015 the WDR Cologne Radio Orchestra, with clarinetist Andy Miles, commissioned and premiered Freiberg’s “Latin American Chronicles: Concerto for Clarinet and Symphony Orchestra". This major work fuses the distinct worlds of classical, jazz, and South American folk music that Daniel Freiberg navigates with ease. The enthusiastic response of both musicians and audience led to the 2017 commission and premiere of "Northern Journey", Freiberg's symphonic suite for the same orchestra under the direction of Wayne Marshall.
Daniel Freiberg is an active Film and TV composer working for HBO, NETFLIX, Summit Entertainment-Lions Gate, National Geographic, Discovery, and independent movies.
More on Daniel Freiberg