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Twistification
1988
3 flutes 1º doubling alto flute, 3º doubling piccolo
3 oboes
3 clarinets 1º doubling clarinet in Eb, 3º doubling bass clarinet
3 bassoons 3º doubling contrabassoon
4 horns
3 trumpets
3 trombones
tuba
piano doubling celesta
harp
3 percussion
1: bass drum, chimes, glockenspiel, sizzle cymbal, snare drum, tenor drum, triangle, vibraphone,
large woodblock, xylophone
2: crotales, mark tree, slapstick, snare drum, tenor drum, vibraphone
3: gong, hi-hat, marimba, ratchet, slapstick, snare drum, small suspended cymbal, tam-tam,
temple block, tenor drum, 3 woodblocks
timpani
strings
duration 31'
commissioned by The Scottish National Orchestra
first performance:
Scottish National Orchestra, cond. Bryden Thomson
Music Hall, Aberdeen / October 4,1988
RECORDING
Scottish National Orchestra performance, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
SCORE
Movement 1
Movement 2
Movement 3
PROGRAM NOTE
Twistification (the name comes from a Virginia square dance) springs freom my first contact with the US in 1986, and is full of music as eclectic and optimistic as I first found America to be.
There are three movements; the first and thrid share much of the same material—they are both predominantly bright and fast, each has a variation of Happy Birthday to You embedded in it, and each has at its close a distorted harmonization of one of Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes. The second movement, an orchestration of the first piece I wrote in the United States—a song called Jardin Oublié (Forgotten Garden)—is a shorter, nostaligic arioso.
Twistification is a work about rediscovery and openness; the Brahms quotation is blurred and disjointed, as if looking back at Europe and its mixed legacy from a great distance. Jardin Oublié is a place where sweetness resurfaces. Many distinctly American sounds are present in the score; marching bands, square dances, jazzy vibraphone, fire horns late at night, Coplandesque fanfares, ragtime clarinet lines—all of these elements frmed by the two Happy Birthdayvariations, marking the boundaries of a very changeable year.
REVIEW
Cohesive by instinct – an intensely lucid score propelled by optimism.
The Aberdeen Evening Express