w16566
| Title | Company of Free Spirits, A |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) |
| Composition date | 2006 |
| Duration (mins) | 13 |
| Category | chamber quartet string |
| Instrumentation | 2 Vn Va Vc |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | |
| Notes | To Peter Healy |
| Programme Note | In May 2006 during a visit to Dublin I spent an evening at the house of Peter Healy, cellist and instrument-maker. Everyone present participated witwh huge enjoyment in a crowded programme of chamber music, myself included, and I can honestly say that I haven't had such a lot of fun in years. Since Peter's group has more string players than anything else, I immediately started on this string quartet for them to play, as a way of saying "thank you". The piece is entirely suitable for performance with more than one instrument per part, in line with the house rule that no-one is left out! The 6 movements are thematically interrelated. The 4 themes (one per instrument) stated in the first movement are developed individually in the following 4 slow ariettas and then combined 2 at a time (making 6 combinations) in the "synthetic" finale which closely mirrors the opening movement. Open strings are specified in the 1st violin passage starting at bar 62 and this is understood for the similar passages in the first and last movements. The intended effect is to suggest Irish fiddle music. |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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