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Double Concerto (1990) |
Like several of my recent pieces, the Double Concerto is concerned with a fascination for simultaneously combining harmonic and monophonic streams of music, creating a constantly varied sonic tapestry of changing instrumental perspective.
In the Double Concerto, the focal point is of course the oboe and clarinet, who are assigned a melodic thread which provides the foundation for a linear continuity existing throughout the piece. During the course of the piece this thread, which remains intact, is entangled and woven through many different varieties of orchestral fabric, relentlessly drawing the music through a lengthy acceleration process to its inevitable conclusion. at the same time, the two soloists are gradually freed from the heterophonic and harmonic confines of the orchestral backcloth, finally emerging triumphantly over a tense, craggy two part string counterpoint and fully flowering melodic line which is heard through the whole orchestra, and which leads the music towards the final double bar.
The Double Concerto is scored for a chamber orchestra of two flutes (second doubling piccolo), cor anglais, bass clarinet, bassoon, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets and strings. It is dedicated with love to two wonderful musicians, Nicholas Daniel and Joy Farrall who gave the first performance at the 1990 Cheltenham Festival.
© Simon Bainbridge