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Bright Herald of the Morning (1992) |
clarinet, piano - 10'
This piece was commissioned by Music of Leasowes Bank, with funds provided by West Midlands Arts, for the clarinettist Fiona Cross and the pianist Kathryn Lenehan. The work was completed in May 1992. The work's title is clearly reflected in the angular clarinet fanfare with which the work opens. The double dotted rhythms and wide intervals of this idea are complemented by a spiky piano line, complete with a low rumbling trill. Throughout the work a sparse, brittle texture is maintained, there rarely being more than three individual lines played simultaneously. The intricacies of the rhythmic overlaps hinted at in the opening bars increase as the work progresses, also building in dynammic as part of a sustained rise in tension. At the climax of the work the piano is left alone, hammering out quintuplet note clusters, consisting of the five highest notes of the piano, with a flat hand. Gradually the anger subsides, the clarinet rejoining with a simple melody occasionally rudely interrupted by the note-cluster idea. Burrell specifies the closing section to be played 'like a fanfare'. Here the music focusses on the note G, the clarinet insisting on the open fourth interval D-G. This idea persists to the very end of the work.
© Robert Plane