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- Peter Maxwell Davies
Economies of Scale (2002)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by Patricia Mirrlees, for Sir James Mirrlees, Scottish Economist and Nobel Laureate, in the centenary year of the Nobel Prizes
- clarinet, piano, violin, cello
- 8 min
Programme Note
This short work establishes a roundabout Cambridge connection by being based on a line – a sometimes disjunct scale from a String Quartet I wrote in 1961 dedicated to Alexander Goehr, who subsequently became Cambridge’s Professor of Music.
A fast, rhythmic opening, in which the violin and cello answer short statements by the piano with the clarinet eventually mediating between them, gives way to a longer isometric section, where a slow ‘tenuto’ line, moving between the instruments, is decorated by rhythmic and melodic flourishes on the clarinet, violin and ‘cello, and by more harmonically filled-out ones on the piano. A gradual quickening of pace and an increase of activity lead to a varied and more gentle version of the opening. The slow, quiet final bars crystallise the B major harmonies implicit from the outset.
A fast, rhythmic opening, in which the violin and cello answer short statements by the piano with the clarinet eventually mediating between them, gives way to a longer isometric section, where a slow ‘tenuto’ line, moving between the instruments, is decorated by rhythmic and melodic flourishes on the clarinet, violin and ‘cello, and by more harmonically filled-out ones on the piano. A gradual quickening of pace and an increase of activity lead to a varied and more gentle version of the opening. The slow, quiet final bars crystallise the B major harmonies implicit from the outset.
Scores
Sample Pages