Niflheim by Csaba Zoltan Marjan

Every year a competition is held in Debrecen for the percussion and brass students of Hungarian music academies. This piece was composed for that event in 2010 as an obligatory piece in the 2. round at the request of Prof. István Szabó, the Head of the Percussion and Brass Department.

The piece is about 7-8 minutes and contains several virtuosic, fast and furious sections which require technical facility and stamina from the performer. On the other hand, it consists of numerous passages in which the musical skills of the performer can be expressed. The key of the piece is to find the right characters and the right tempos which are in constant change. The articulation of the phrases is also very important. Even if the piece, apart from a few passages, moves in a perpetual motion of sixteenth notes that flow continuously from the beginning to the end, there are different tempos and atmospheres to be shown.

The title Niflheim is a place of eternal cold, darkness and fog in the Norse Mythology located in the underworld. According to extant sources, it was one of the two primordial realms, the other one was Muspelheim, the realm of fire. Between these two realms of cold and heat, creation began.