2009
5'
tpt/hp/vn.va.vc
1st perf:
Endymion Ensemble
Quentin Poole, conductor
Kings Place, London, 4-6 June 2009
Composers Edition
Programme note:
Although touched to be asked to write a piece in celebration of Endymion's 30th Anniversary, I was about to refuse through genuine pressure of work (an orchestral piece and string quartet beckoned!), when I was virtually compelled to accede by the sudden arrival of a musical idea, unsought - I had been hoisted on my own petard. I could hear a muted trumpet, harp and string trio in consort ringing in my ear, a new ensemble for me, and a structure also presented itself - something that suggested to me strata in a piece of ancient rock. In fact, I feel that the whole p1ece exists in pre-history.
The little six-minute structure opens with the strings singing calmly in octaves. while the trumpet runs, trips and dances Thereafter, the strings get increasingly animated, while the trumpet loses impetus until it is playing (now unmuted) what the strings did originally the strings themselves now running over and under it. The roles have been reversed. A short coda disperses all the material The title refers to a famous line of W.B Yeats.
Anthony Payne
5'
tpt/hp/vn.va.vc
1st perf:
Endymion Ensemble
Quentin Poole, conductor
Kings Place, London, 4-6 June 2009
Composers Edition
Programme note:
Although touched to be asked to write a piece in celebration of Endymion's 30th Anniversary, I was about to refuse through genuine pressure of work (an orchestral piece and string quartet beckoned!), when I was virtually compelled to accede by the sudden arrival of a musical idea, unsought - I had been hoisted on my own petard. I could hear a muted trumpet, harp and string trio in consort ringing in my ear, a new ensemble for me, and a structure also presented itself - something that suggested to me strata in a piece of ancient rock. In fact, I feel that the whole p1ece exists in pre-history.
The little six-minute structure opens with the strings singing calmly in octaves. while the trumpet runs, trips and dances Thereafter, the strings get increasingly animated, while the trumpet loses impetus until it is playing (now unmuted) what the strings did originally the strings themselves now running over and under it. The roles have been reversed. A short coda disperses all the material The title refers to a famous line of W.B Yeats.
Anthony Payne