"The complete consort dancing together" (2005)
for orchestra
picc.2 (2=picc).2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn - 6.3.3.1 - perc (7) - 2hp - strings
duration 2'30"
First performed London, 2005 (Kensington Symphony Orchestra, cond. Russell Keable)
Score
picc.2 (2=picc).2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn - 6.3.3.1 - perc (7) - 2hp - strings
duration 2'30"
First performed London, 2005 (Kensington Symphony Orchestra, cond. Russell Keable)
Score
This short piece was commissioned by Kensington Symphony Orchestra as one of six concert openers for their 50th season in 2005-6. The title comes from T.S. Eliot's Little Gidding. To put the following programme note in context, the work preceded a performance of Tippett's final orchestral piece, The Rose Lake.
Programme note:
I'm suspicious of tributes - they always seem to end up sounding more like obituaries, and it occurs to me that dwelling on past glories goes against the spirit of KSO. So I've tried to write something that celebrates and encapsulates the orchestra's ebullience and energy, and rather than marking the end of one half-century, signals the start of the next. If music matters at all, it's because it's about community, bringing people together. It's something KSO does very well, and something worth celebrating.
So, taking T.S. Eliot's advice that "What we call the beginning is often the end / And to make an end is to make a beginning", I hope I've produced something that will help your imaginations bridge the gap between a grey November evening in London and Tippett's glittering Senegalese lake. "The end is where we start from."
Programme note:
I'm suspicious of tributes - they always seem to end up sounding more like obituaries, and it occurs to me that dwelling on past glories goes against the spirit of KSO. So I've tried to write something that celebrates and encapsulates the orchestra's ebullience and energy, and rather than marking the end of one half-century, signals the start of the next. If music matters at all, it's because it's about community, bringing people together. It's something KSO does very well, and something worth celebrating.
So, taking T.S. Eliot's advice that "What we call the beginning is often the end / And to make an end is to make a beginning", I hope I've produced something that will help your imaginations bridge the gap between a grey November evening in London and Tippett's glittering Senegalese lake. "The end is where we start from."
