2 Flutes (2nd doubling piccolo)
2 Oboes
2 Clarinets in Bb (2nd doubling bass clarinet)
2 Bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon)
2 Horns in F
2 Trumpets in C Timpani
1 Percussion(Sus. Cym, S.D., Tom-toms
Szl. Cym, Rain stick, Temple blocks, Tub. Bells, Tam-tam, Tri., B.D., Crotales, Maracas, Mark tree, Xyl.)
Solo viola Strings
duration approximately 25 minutes
Copyright © 2011 by Norsk Musikforlag A/S, Oslo.
Study Score (A4) (N.M.O. 12875A/ISMN 979-0-065-12102-4) on sale
Conductor’s Score (B4) (N.M.O. 12875B/ISMN 979-0-065-12103-1) on hire
Orchestral parts (N.M.O. 12875C/ISMN 979-0-065-12104-8) on hire
Contact the publisher for further information:
Published by: Norsk Musikforlag A/S Postboks 1499 Vika N-0116 Oslo Norway
TEL 00-47-23 00 20 10 FAX 00-47-22 42 44 35
E-mail: order@musikforlaget.no
Viola Concerto No.2 ‘The Seafarer’(2001)
Andante irrequieto
Andante malevole
Andante riflessivo
I first came across the 9th century Anglo-Saxon poem The Seafarer, when artist Jila Peacock sent me a new translation by Charles Harrison Wallace, whose Scottish and Swedish ancestry has led to a very Nordic take on the poem, using words which resonate in both Scandinavian/North Scottish languages, and reflecting a Nordic view of life’s journey, using the metaphor of a sea voyage that comes to rest in ‘Heaven’s haven’. I was struck by its vivid imagery and wrote a short piece for solo violin inspired by the text.
In 2000 I was asked by the ‘Summer on the Peninsula’ Festival to make a setting of the poem for narrator and piano trio with Jila’s Seafarer prints projected as part of the work, and in so doing I began to hear more orchestral textures and to want to explore the material further. The Viola Concerto is the third part in my ‘Seafarer’ Trilogy and is in three movements.
The first suggests wave shapes, seabirds, and ideas of conflict and exploration.
HYPERLINK "http://www.cichw.net/as1.htm#6"All I ever heard along the ice-way was sounding sea, the gannet's shanty whooper and curlew calls and mewling gull were all my gaming, mead and mirth At tempest-tested granite crags the ice-winged tern would taunt spray-feathered ospreys overhead would soar and scream
The second is based on a two-note motif first heard on the bassoon –HYPERLINK "http://www.cichw.net/as1.htm#14"And heralding his summer hoard of pain the gowk (cuckoo) repeats his plaintive geck foreboding bitterness of breast
HYPERLINK "http://www.cichw.net/as1.htm#15"Soft-bedded bloods cannot conceive what some men suffer as abroad they travel tracks of exile
HYPERLINK "http://www.cichw.net/as1.htm#16"Reckless of that, my thought is thrown beyond my heart's cage now. My mind is cast upon the sea swell, over the whale's world
The music is mocking and ironic in character, with a fragile and transient middle section – the half-heard cries of banshee-like spirits.
The last movement is essentially a set of cadenzas exploring material from the first two movements, set against a gentle string refrain and resolving into a simple hymn-like passage which ends the concerto.
HYPERLINK "http://www.cichw.net/as1.htm#28"Come, consider where we have a home, how we can travel to it, how our travail here will lead us to the living well-head and heaven haven of our Lord's love
The concerto is dedicated to Tabea Zimmermann, in memory of the conductor David Shallon, who was to have conducted the first performance, and who died tragically in 2001. It was jointly commissioned by the Swedish and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, and first performed by Tabea Zimmermann with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, at the City halls, Glasgow, conducted by Joseph Swensen, in January 2002.
Cover Design: Christopher Haanes
Graphic production and print: Oslo Sats, Repro & Montasje A/S, Oslo.
Printed in Norway
Dedicated to Tabea Zimmermann in memory of David Shallon
Andante irrequieto
Andante irrequieto
,
(senza sord.)
(con sord.)
382 Andante riflessivo (q = c. 70)
Andante riflessivo (q = c. 70)
Tempo 1 (q = c. 70)
Tempo 1 (q = c. 70)