"continuo" poems - Hello Poetry

Heartstone is a reflection in music on a ‘lost’ poem. The poem described in its two short verses a summer’s day, a landscape, a fossil found and placed in the palm of a child’s hand. The poem inspired a seven-movement work for wind, brass and percussion with solo piano. Here is its poetic programme note. Chert The piano draws an arc of rhythm rising then falling. Above two choirs of wind and brass exclaim, fanfare, mark out shorter, determined gestures of sound. The procession, almost a march, becomes a dance. Alone Two choirs of wind and brass become four couples whose music weaves from complexity a simplicity: Chromatic to Pentatonic twelve becoming five. Prase Four stopped horns, five extended tonalities. Together they wander a maze of Pentatonic paths; alone, and in pairs, as a quartet they discover within a measured harmonic rhythm. Tension: resolution . . . and surrounding their every move the piano insists an obligato, a continuum of phrases, absorbing into itself the warp and weft of horn tone. Sard Oscillating in perpetual motion the full ensemble occupies a frame of time and space. Flutes, reeds, double-reeds brass, piano, percussion mirror-fold on mirror-fold layer upon layer overlapping. Yarns of threaded sound. Tuff Without a break the mirrored oscillations patter pentatonics on tuned percussion of marimba and vibraphone whilst a batterie of drums lays down shards of beaten rhythm against this onward folding of tonality change. In the background a choir of winds flutes and single reeds waymark this recursive journey gathering together cadential moments and the necessary pause for breath. Marl Relentlessly, the motion is sustained, piano-driven, a syncopated continuo, rhythm-sectioned amidst layers of percussion. Adding edge, a choir of brass and double reeds amplify the piano’s jagged rhythms providing impetus for phrases to become longer and longer, ratching up the tension, ever-denying closure until the batterie delivers a conclusive flourish. Paramoudra Pulse-figures of winds. Motific cells of brass. Both negotiate a stream of fractal-shaped tonality expanding: contracting. A blossom of fanfares folding into pulsating layers of tuned percussion, flutes and reeds. A dance-like episode absorbs a chorale. Four horns in close harmony against the continuing dance. A duet of differences flows into a cascade of chords in closed and open forms. The piano supports brass-flourishing figures before a final stillness. Heartstone In gentle reflection the solitary piano – a figure in a landscape of collapsed harmonic forms - presents in slow procession the essence of previous music.

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Jan 27, 2013

Jan 27, 2013 at 12:41 PM UTC

nigel-morgan

Heartstone

Heartstone is a reflection in music on a ‘lost’ poem. The poem described in its two short verses a summer’s day, a landscape, a fossil found and placed in the palm of a child’s hand. The poem inspired a seven-movement work for wind, brass and percussion with solo piano. Here is its poetic programme note. Chert The piano draws an arc of rhythm rising then falling. Above two choirs of wind and brass exclaim, fanfare, mark out shorter, determined gestures of sound. The procession, almost a march, becomes a dance. Alone Two choirs of wind and brass become four couples whose music weaves from complexity a simplicity: Chromatic to Pentatonic twelve becoming five. Prase Four stopped horns, five extended tonalities. Together they wander a maze of Pentatonic paths; alone, and in pairs, as a quartet they discover within a measured harmonic rhythm. Tension: resolution . . . and surrounding their every move the piano insists an obligato, a continuum of phrases, absorbing into itself the warp and weft of horn tone. Sard Oscillating in perpetual motion the full ensemble occupies a frame of time and space. Flutes, reeds, double-reeds brass, piano, percussion mirror-fold on mirror-fold layer upon layer overlapping. Yarns of threaded sound. Tuff Without a break the mirrored oscillations patter pentatonics on tuned percussion of marimba and vibraphone whilst a batterie of drums lays down shards of beaten rhythm against this onward folding of tonality change. In the background a choir of winds flutes and single reeds waymark this recursive journey gathering together cadential moments and the necessary pause for breath. Marl Relentlessly, the motion is sustained, piano-driven, a syncopated continuo, rhythm-sectioned amidst layers of percussion. Adding edge, a choir of brass and double reeds amplify the piano’s jagged rhythms providing impetus for phrases to become longer and longer, ratching up the tension, ever-denying closure until the batterie delivers a conclusive flourish. Paramoudra Pulse-figures of winds. Motific cells of brass. Both negotiate a stream of fractal-shaped tonality expanding: contracting. A blossom of fanfares folding into pulsating layers of tuned percussion, flutes and reeds. A dance-like episode absorbs a chorale. Four horns in close harmony against the continuing dance. A duet of differences flows into a cascade of chords in closed and open forms. The piano supports brass-flourishing figures before a final stillness. Heartstone In gentle reflection the solitary piano – a figure in a landscape of collapsed harmonic forms - presents in slow procession the essence of previous music.