Envoi: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra

Envoi Concerto for Cello and Orchestra

Paul Paccione (2006)

ENVOI (2006), Concerto for Cello and Orchestra

By Paul Paccione “Envoi” (or envoy) is a sending on the way. In a poem, the “envoi” is a short fixed final stanza that serves as a summary or dedication. The “envoi” is the final return to the subject, a conclusive summing up, a clever sending off. In this sense, the composition “Envoi” represents a summing up of the lyric expressive musical language I have been exploring in my more recent music.

“Envoi,” for cello and orchestra, is in four movements that are played without interruption. Movement I is a rhapsody for solo cello and orchestra. Movement II is in three sections - the first and third sections are a canonic march, the middle section is a chorale for solo cello and woodwinds. Movement III is a slowly unfolding lyrical aria for solo cello, that is punctuated by the woodwinds, against a more sustained string background. Movement IV combines previously heard musical material, from Movements I and II, with new musical material in an animated minimalist dance.

There are four movements: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer.

The title was drawn from Rudyard Kipling’s poem L’Envoi, which begins: There's a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield And the ricks stand gray to the sun, Singing:—'Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover And your English summer 's done.'

Instrumentation Solo Cello 2 Flutes Oboe English Horn 2 Bb Clarinets 2 Bassoons 2 Horns in F Percussion (Timpani, Triangle, Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells) Piano Violin I Violin II Viola Violoncello Double Bass Published by Frog Peak Music, Box 1052, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03766; www.frogpeak.org