麻豆约拍

Matthew Kaner is Radio 3鈥檚 Embedded Composer in 3, in partnership with Sound and Music. Listen to the sixth of Matthew's weekly commissions for 70 at 70, a series of musical and cultural commissions to mark 70 years of 麻豆约拍 Radio 3.

Matthew writes:

'This work was written as a special commission for the Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment鈥檚 Night Shift series, which is a programme of concerts in pubs and other non-traditional venues, bringing classical music to different audiences. It鈥檚 a fantastic series and I鈥檝e long been a fan, so it was very exciting to be able to write the piece for the OAE, which they premiered in the Old Queen鈥檚 Head in Islington on 25th October.

Writing for period instruments is pretty unusual for a contemporary composer, and four violins perhaps even more so. The OAE performed my new piece alongside a beautiful work by Telemann, his Concerto for Four Violins without Bass in G, which seems to defy all expectations by using the whole range of the instruments to create a completely convincing full-bodied texture with just these treble instruments. The first movement of the piece has a particularly beautiful opening: against its regular pulse we hear rich colourful harmonies and wonderfully expansive melodic gestures that weave their way around the ensemble.

Like the Telemann, my piece is also divided into a few short movements. (His concerto has four; I鈥檝e written three for now.) I鈥檝e also taken his idea of using a regular pulse in the first movement as a kind of basis around which to drape flowing melodies. I鈥檝e slightly cheated the issue of not having a bass register by tuning the fourth violin鈥檚 lowest string down a tone to F, which opens up a few more options, and creates some new harmonics on the instrument, which I explore in the middle section of the first movement, which has a more ethereal, floating quality to it.

In the second and third movements I explore two traditional Baroque dances, an Allemande and a Gigue. Both of these energetic movements take ideas from Baroque works I admire, particularly Corelli鈥檚 Trio Sonatas, but with some contemporary twists. For example, the constant triplet rhythm of the Gigue is actually shared between two of the violinists in a constant exchange, and against this, I鈥檝e written a longer melodic line for the other two violinists which moves at a much slower pace, so we get a sense of different layers within the music.

Writing for period instruments has been quite a challenge and rather a steep learning curve at times. I鈥檝e been especially lucky to work so closely with the OAE, and particularly Maggie Faultless, who plays the first violin part, during the process to really get to know and understand what makes these instruments so special.'

Musicians: Players of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Margaret Faultless, Andrew Roberts, Kati Debretzeni, Huw Daniel

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