HELLAWELL
Landscape with Portraits
for String Trio
Score
ISSUU Version
For perusal only
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PIERS HELLAWELL
Landscape with Portraits
Score for String Trio
POD PETERS on demand
ALLE
EDITION PETERS
LEIP
ISSUU Version For perusal only
PROGRAMME NOTE
The design of this piece is closely related to that of my string quartet Driftwood on Sand, whose title expresses the same idea using a different metaphor. In both works the individual moods of a few ‘snapshot’ miniatures are positioned around a longer ‘narrative’ piece, or pieces, that unfold contrasted events. Here I describe this duality in the alternative printing formats of ‘landscape’ and ‘portrait’ – offering as it were a tension between panoramic and specific viewing.
The two short portraits of this trio are therefore arranged around a central movement. One portrait is turbulent and active, the other more reflective. Portrait 1 presents a central melodic line, passed busily around the voices, while the remaining instruments accompany with secondary fragments. Portrait 2 uses an unusual drone effect in the outer parts to accompany, again, a central melody, this time confined to viola. Landscape meanwhile tells a narrative that begins in stillness, moving into a swaying Barcarolle for ’cello before becoming more assertive; after a brief moment of stillness and concerted playing at the climax, it concludes as a frantic chase. I have a particular liking for the formal principle of progression, wherein a movement travels from a starting-point to a very different territory; yet the helter-skelter conclusion of Landscape is, in a way, just its opening in disguise. It is worth considering that chamber music is inevitably an exercise in the working of new permutations and instrumental relationships, so that the true subject matter of this trio is the endless interaction of the three voices.
Piers Hellawell (2004)
Duration: c. 10 minutes
Commissioned by Chamber Domaine
First performed at the 2004 Cheltenham Festival
ISSUU Version
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ISSUU Version
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Piers Hellawell
Piers Hellawell (b. 1956) has worked with leading artists such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Schubert Ensemble, Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Hilliard Ensemble, who toured his Hilliard Songbook pieces worldwide. Orchestral works include Cors de chasse (for Håkan Hardenberger, Jonas Bylund and the Philharmonia Orchestra) and the BBC commission Dogs and Wolves (2006), while Syzygy was premiered in 2013 by the Stockholm Chamber Brass/Swedish Chamber Orchestra. 2016 saw Hellawell’s Wild Flow commissioned for the BBC Proms, and a UK tour of Up by the Roots – a collaboration with poet Sinéad Morrissey – as well as a composer feature at Detroit’s Great Lakes Festival. Hellawell has been Professor of Composition at Queen’s University of Belfast since 2002, and has spoken widely on issues of music and cultural ownership as Gresham Professor of Music in London, 2000–2003.
Piers Hellawell (*1956) hat mit führenden Interpreten wie dem London Symphony Orchestra, dem Schubert Ensemble und Evelyn Glennie zusammengearbeitet. Das Hilliard Ensemble brachte sein Hilliard Songbook weltweit zur Aufführung. Für Orchester enstanden u. a. Cors de chasse (für Håkan Hardenberger, Jonas Bylund und das Philharmonia Orchestra), das BBC-Auftragswerk Dogs and Wolves (2006) sowie das 2013 vom Stockholm Chamber Brass/ Swedish Chamber Orchestra uraufgeführte Syzygy. 2016 folgten Wild Flow für die BBC Proms, Up by the Roots – ein Gemeinschaftswerk mit der Dichterin Sinéad Morrissey, das in ganz Großbritannien auf Tournee ging – sowie ein Komponistenporträt beim Great Lakes Festival in Detroit. Seit 2002 ist Hellawell Professor an der Queen’s University in Belfast. Als Inhaber der Londoner Gresham-Professur für Musik setzte er sich 2000–2003 mit Fragen des kulturellen Eigentums in der Musik auseinander.