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.