Piano Quintet
SKU:
BR.EB-9399
Hommage
a Schubert. Composed
by Christian Mason.
Chamber music; stapled.
Edition Breitkopf. Music
post-1945; New music
(post-2000). Score and
parts. Composed 2020. 72
pages. Duration 15'.
Breitkopf and Haertel #EB
9399. Published by
Breitkopf and Haertel
(BR.EB-9399).
ISBN
9790004188736. 9 x 12
inches.
One of my
favourite pieces of music
as a child - and I still
love it - was Schubert's
Trout Quintet. It was
partly the wonderful
music, of course, so
light-hearted and joyful
on the surface, yet with
twists and turns and
murky depths of feeling
too. But I also liked the
picture of a trout on the
album sleeve - such
beautiful creatures! Last
year, while resident at
the Villa Concordia in
Bamberg, as I took daily
walks along the Regnitz
river, I observed the
trout as they calmly
hovered and swayed in the
shallows... But if they
felt my shadow they were
gone in a split second!
If you ever get a chance
to look closely at brown
trout you see that they
are covered in myriad
brown/red spots of varied
sizes; camouflage I
suppose. Now those
patterns seem to be
mixing in my mind with
the shifting colours of
the spectral arpeggios
that flow through this
little piece. It's a
watery piece, with
rippling waves,
shimmering surfaces and
textural veils around the
melodies which flow
through it. But it also
takes inspiration (and
it's title) from a Pablo
Neruda poem: the third
stanza of Every Day You
Play includes the line
The sky is a net crammed
with shadowy fish.
There's no singer, but I
imagine an invisible or
imaginary voice somewhere
behind (or beyond) the
music, and so the score
includes a melodic
setting of the text. Even
though this is not
performed by a voice, the
melody is always played
by the ensemble -
especially high register
cello - making the piece
something like the
inverse of a song without
words. (Christian
Mason)
World
premiere:
Aix-en-Provence, October
16, 2020 Commissioned by
the Grand Theatre de
Provence -
Aix-en-Provence.
