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Lookup NU author(s): Professor AgustÝn Fernández
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A chamber work for piano and string quartet lasting 18 minutes. It is in three movements. Originally written in 1991, this work has undergone extensive revision and in its new form has benefited from sustained public exposure. Where the pressures of a commission deadline in 1991 had militated against full realisation of the objectives, these have now been achieved to my satisfaction. Structural development is at the forefront. In the first movement I isolate successively texture, then metre and then melody as factors of organisation of the material, each in a cumulative process that amounts to a structural crescendo. The second movement revisits the old passacaglia form, and the last movement exemplifies what I term ‘hard counterpoint’, the superimposition of parts which are also capable of sustaining interest as independent solo lines. The far more radical application of the same idea in Approaching Melmoth (2000) prompted me to revisit Botanic Spider for a more thorough execution of the brief.
Composer(s): Fernández A
Publication type: Musical Composition
Publication status: Published
Year: 2003
Publisher: Northern Sinfonia
Place Published: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Type of Work: Chamber music
URL: .www.agustinfernandez.com
Notes: Original version commissioned by Arts Council of Northern Ireland and performed by Sequenza in 1991 and by Nuove Forme Sonore of Rome in 1992. The work was extensively revised in 2003. This new version was performed by members of Northern Sinfonia on 26 May 2004 and by Mr McFall's Chamber in Newcastle (July 2006) and Edinburgh and Stirling (February 2007). A commercial recording by Mr McFall's Chamber is under preparation and scheduled to be launched in September 2007.