Chamber Music
SKU:
PR.164002120
Composed
by Dan Welcher. Set of
Score and Parts. With
Standard notation.
32+16+12+12+12 pages.
Duration 16 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#164-00212. Published by
Theodore Presser Company
(PR.164002120).
UPC:
680160037582.
Works
of chamber music
including flute and
strings are not nearly as
numerous as those for
clarinet, or even the
oboe. Probably the reason
for this is the less
assertive, more pure tone
the flute possesses - it
can't compete for volume
or range with the
clarinet, except in its
top octave, and the
oboe's tone is more
penetrating and easily
discerned from within a
string texture.
Consequently, composers
who have written for
flute and strings have
done so in lightweight
divertimento works:
compare, for instance,
the delicate flute
quartets of Mozart with
his monumental quintet
for clarinet and strings.
When Karl and Joan
Karber approached me with
the ideas of writing a
work for flute and string
trio, I originally
thought it would be best
to write a humorous,
rather offhand piece -
but a look at their
repertoire (mostly
comprised of smaller
works of the Rococo
period) convinced me that
it was the last thing
they needed. In spite of
the challenge (or maybe
because of it?), I
determined to write a
large work, and a serious
work. Zephyrus (named for
the God of the West Wind,
in deference to the
flute) is a
three-movement work, with
each movement cast in a
very different form, but
all three being built of
the same twelve-note
series. There is also a
rhythmic motive and a
pair of themes that
appear in all three
movements. The
first movement plays with
the idea of contrast and
persuasion. The flute, at
the outset, is the
hell-for-leather
protagonist, charging and
swooping around the
strings - who seem oddly
unconcerned by his
passion. Indeed, they
have a more somber song
to sing - and as the
movement unfolds, the
flute becomes less and
less active, while the
strings become
increasingly enlivened.
By the midpoint, when all
four instruments are
finally in the same meter
and the same tempo, the
flute's energy has
finally infected the
other three players, and
this energy does not let
up until the movement's
abrupt final cadence.
The second
movement begins with a
tag from the first - as
if the energy left over
was too great to simply
stop. At length, though,
a very poignant flute
melody appears over an
almost bluesy harmony in
the strings. After this
has been fully exposed, a
slight increase in
motion, marked gently
rocking in triplets,
features a theme-fragment
from Leonard Bernstein's
Symphony No. 2 (Kaddish).
Bernstein died as I was
writing this work, and it
seemed quite natural to
encourage what was
already implicit in the
music, and create an
Elegy for L.B. The music
rises and peaks, then in
the recapitulation of the
opening the Kaddish theme
reappears, as the
ensemble suggests a
gentle song of sleep.
The final movement
is a Rondo-Variations
form, with the slight
alteration of adding the
main theme of the second
movement in what would be
the trio of the form. The
ritornello theme is a
kind of ethnic dance
music, almost an allusion
to the Klezmer ensembles
of Eastern Europe. The
successive episodes
between the ritornelli
are loosely organized
variations on the basic
theme, but always
beginning with a metric
modulation, a rhythmic
changing of gears. The
movement reaches and apex
of speed and furious
pulsing, then abruptly
pirouttes, and finishes.
Zephyrus was
written between April and
November of 1990 in
Austin, Aspen, and
Honolulu, and is
dedicated to Karl Kraber
and The Chamber Soloists
of Austin. --Dan
Welcher.
Elegy for Strings - Opus 58
