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Paramell V (1981) |
two pianos - 7' 30"
Commissioned by Mats Persson & Kristine Scholz (Stockholm, Sweden) with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain. First performance: 7 April, 1984, North American New Music Festival, SUNY-Buffalo, New York. Anthony de Mare and Rick McGirr, pianos. Paramell V was commissioned by the Swedish two piano team, Mats Persson & Kristine Scholz and written while I was in residence at The MacDowell Artists' Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire in the winter of 1981. It is a virtuoso toccata moto perpetuo reflecting my early interest in the so-called 'minimalist' American composers and the idea of gradually increasing the density and intensity of keyboard fury until they reach the full throttle at the climax of the work. Paramell V radically departs from the minimalist canon by its clear sense of growth, climax and dénouement, something not usually found in minimal pieces of the time. When I returned to England I made a solo piano arrangement for a concert Philip Mead was doing in Cambridge and called the new version, Paramell Va. "Paramell" is an invented word combining the words "parallel" and "melody". There are a total of seven "paramells" the last of which is for solo piano with flute, clarinet and cello colouring the piano part.
© 1981 Stephen Montague