Concerto for Percussion Quartet and Orchestra
2018 | 28’
perc 4tet, orchestra 2(I=picc II=alto).2.2.2d1/4.3.3.1/str
Written for Quartet19
In February 2016, after the premiere of my first opera The Golden Harp, I was asked to write a double percussion concerto for Kitch-In Sync. At this time I was still monstrously busy with a long list of pieces I had already planned to write, so the project was added to this list, to be undertaken at a much later date. By the time I was able to return to the commission Kitch-In Sync had grown into Quartet19, and the proposal was now a Concerto for Percussion Quartet and Orchestra. Work began in July 2017, and was completed in January 2018.
Throughout the piece I was concerned most with balance: a typical concerto has only one soloist against an orchestra, but here I had four! I knew if it were possible to redistribute the percussion parts to one soloist and three orchestral, I would have failed in writing a true quartet concerto. Each player had to have an important part, but the four parts had to fit together as a cohesive quartet against the orchestra - a particularly fiendish balancing act. It was when I realised this that I also discovered why so few composers have attempted such a piece before.
The percussion quartet concerto being such an unexplored idea, I took a particularly roguish glee in utilising a traditional four-movement structure. With such a wide array of sounds to choose from, this gave me room to work with one thing at a time. The percussion quartet ensemble is inherently theatrical in its physicality, and I knew an audience would expect two things: “loud”, and “fast”. Thus, I opened the piece in the opposite manner, knowing that we would arrive at the loud, fast bit at the end of the piece, and by making the audience wait for the inevitable it would have a much greater impact. I also knew that in this particular percussion layout, spatialisation would play a big role. The initial theme is therefore spread out between the quartet and by extension physical space; in live performance, the sounds will, I believe, come from noticeably different places, and this spatial modulation is just as important as the timbres themselves. Such an idea can also be seen prominently at the end of the second movement, and at the start of the third and fourth.
Movement 1 is the most eclectic, following a miniature concerto structure in itself. Here most of the important ideas are introduced, with a particular attention to contrast, energy, and forward momentum. Movement 2 is much the opposite, being much more tranquil, letting ideas breathe and flow in timelessness. Movement 3 takes the role of the scherzo in classical concerti, offering a playful lightness with reduced forces. Movement 4 begins by addressing the elephant in the room - dual bass drums at either end of the stage - before giving each percussionist one last chance to show off as it charges through to one final climax, a recapitulation of an earlier theme that pays homage to Shostakovich (an idea that has been hinted at throughout the piece).
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