w7773
| Title | Canzona |
| Contributors |
Buxton Orr (composer) Henry The Minstrel (author) William Dunbar (author) 'The Prayer Book Version' (author) Rev John Skinner (author) |
| Composition date | 1963 1963 |
| Duration (mins) | 24 |
| Category | vocal accompanied |
| Instrumentation | T Cl Vn Va Vc |
| Commissioned by | Glasgow University Court (A McEwen commission) |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | 21 04 1965 Wilfred Brown, Henry Morrison, members of the Lyra Quartet Randolph Hall, Glasgow University |
| Notes | |
| Programme Note | It seemed an appropriate response to the honour of a McEwen Commission to attempt to write a work which was both a conventional four movement chamber work and also a setting of Scottish texts. The fact that the voice is treated as part of the instrumental ensemble is reflected in the title, which refers to a period before the autonomy of purely instrumental music. Soon after this time the distinction. between a Canzona Sonata and a Canzona Cantata had to be made. The opening movement has a Sonata plan in which the two contrasting groups of material correspond to the two texts, the Dunbar breaking across and commenting on the main poem. The double exposition of the main material, separated by a displaced slow introduction, could be more simply thought of as a description of a battle leading to the death of the Graham, the entry of the voice to describe the scene and a recommencement of the main movement as Wallace remembers the active life of his departed friend. In the second movement, the chief musical dialogue lies between the voice and clarinet, the strings playing a relatively accompanimenal role. The third movement is an intermezzo, without clarinet, in which muted strings make chromatically inflected pattern out of a single motif from the singer's repetitive ditty. The finale combines a continually developing strophic pattern, incorporating references to the earlier movements, with the rondo-like return of fragments of the short opening clarinet cadenza based on the original tune to which the poet makes continual reference. |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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