CRACOWIAN COUNTERPOINTS Op. 38

Large Ensemble 20'

1111-1110-Pft-1Perc-String quintet (2Vln-Vla-Vc-Cb)

Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta for the (Queens Silver Jubilee)

First performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in June 1977 when it was conducted by the composer.

I. Interplay. 

II. Pastorale. 

III. Allegro Vivo.

Cracowian Counterpoints was conceived and sketched out while the composer was on a visit to Poland and staying in the old city of Cracow. The work was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta specially for performance at their Queen's Silver Jubilee Concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

The three movements are linked by the interval of the sixth: in the first there are two ideas - fanfare-like flourishes with repeated notes contrasting syncopated block chords, both on sixths. The harmony in the second is less dissonant though still based on the same interval. In the energetic last movement the sixth is now reduced to a minor third to facilitate rapid articulation of small phrases, and is at the same time an expression of the individual voices drawing
closer together.

 

 

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