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- Simon Holt
Ellsworth 2 (2012)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the Utah Symphony Orchestra
- 2+pic.3.1+2bcl.1+cbn/4.3.2+btbn.1/timp.2perc/hp.cel/str
- 15 min
Programme Note
I’ve been very strict with myself in this piece. The model for it is ‘Painting for a white wall’ by Ellsworth Kelly, a painter I’ve long admired for his rigour, attention to detail and clarity of thinking. The material stems from music that I wrote in an earlier piece, Troubled Light (2008), composed for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales where I was Composer in Association for 4 years. The third movement of Troubled Light is called ‘Ellsworth’; essentially the slow, central, meditative section of the whole piece. Some of the material from this movement re-appears in the final movement, at which point it has become hugely loud and abrasive and it’s this music that I took as a starting point for Ellsworth 2. The painting by Kelly is in 5 distinct sections, all exactly the same size; both width and height. Each one is a separate, clearly defined colour: black pink orange white blue. It’s precisely this kind of clarity that I have tried to aim for in my piece: 5 distinct sections of orchestral colour, each of which lasts exactly 3 minutes (or should do!). They’re all distant cousins of each other, material-wise, running without a break. Clearly, the piece should last exactly 15 minutes.
(c) Simon Holt
(c) Simon Holt
Scores
Preview the score
Reviews
...sparse orchestration with long rests for "white," aggressive and densely textured sounds for "black" — while others were more surprising. "Orange," for example, was less jolly than one might have guessed, and "pink" was a bit more piquant. It was an interesting exercise in the subjectivity of color and the cultural expectations that influence our perception of it.
26th April 2013