2007
17'
1122/2210/perc/pf/str(3.3.3.1)
1st perf:
30 Mar 2007
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
London Sinfonietta
Oliver Knussen, conductor
Private recording
Self-published
Programme Note
The thrill of receiving a prestigious commission does not always lead to a flood of ideas. Anxiety at possibly not being able to do one's best can lead to self-consciousness and a consequent log-jam, and preparing the mind like a patch of ground ready for the seed can be a painful and seemingly unproductive affair. Certainly some time elapsed after this commission had arrived before I was able to start work on it.
It was on Easter day 2005 that the opening bars, 'spiritoso', with horn glissandos, running string figures and staccato chords, occurred to me; and shortly after, there followed intimations of a structure which I thought was something new in my music, although not entirely unrelated to some of my earlier pieces, as I later realised.
This structure comprises the alternation, thrice stated, of two types of music, the first, initiated by the 'spiritoso' mentioned above, involves continuous, urgent development which continues at each re- appearance, with little thought of recapitulating or arriving home. The second is an 'adagio' which remains essentially unchanged throughout the course of the work while three differing views of it are presented. It is as if an object in the heavens had been photographed three times through contrasting cloudscapes, or with telescopic lenses of differing magnification. Finally there is a coda in which the developing process seems to be making yet another re-appearance, only to disintegrate, suggesting the instability of dynamism.
As for the title, it seems as if every so often during the dynamic course of our lives the fabric momentarily breaks, and we are afforded a view of some other existence which is so vast that motion is barely perceptible. These 'windows on eternity' were at the back of my mind when the structure of this work dawned on me.
Anthony Payne.
17'
1122/2210/perc/pf/str(3.3.3.1)
1st perf:
30 Mar 2007
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
London Sinfonietta
Oliver Knussen, conductor
Private recording
Self-published
Programme Note
The thrill of receiving a prestigious commission does not always lead to a flood of ideas. Anxiety at possibly not being able to do one's best can lead to self-consciousness and a consequent log-jam, and preparing the mind like a patch of ground ready for the seed can be a painful and seemingly unproductive affair. Certainly some time elapsed after this commission had arrived before I was able to start work on it.
It was on Easter day 2005 that the opening bars, 'spiritoso', with horn glissandos, running string figures and staccato chords, occurred to me; and shortly after, there followed intimations of a structure which I thought was something new in my music, although not entirely unrelated to some of my earlier pieces, as I later realised.
This structure comprises the alternation, thrice stated, of two types of music, the first, initiated by the 'spiritoso' mentioned above, involves continuous, urgent development which continues at each re- appearance, with little thought of recapitulating or arriving home. The second is an 'adagio' which remains essentially unchanged throughout the course of the work while three differing views of it are presented. It is as if an object in the heavens had been photographed three times through contrasting cloudscapes, or with telescopic lenses of differing magnification. Finally there is a coda in which the developing process seems to be making yet another re-appearance, only to disintegrate, suggesting the instability of dynamism.
As for the title, it seems as if every so often during the dynamic course of our lives the fabric momentarily breaks, and we are afforded a view of some other existence which is so vast that motion is barely perceptible. These 'windows on eternity' were at the back of my mind when the structure of this work dawned on me.
Anthony Payne.