Audio Sample
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Performance by Robert Chamberlain from the CD Team of Pianists |
Work Overview
Scorpion Under Glass for solo piano, was written in 1976 whilst I was studying composition with Richard Meale. The title of this short piece reflects the two prime motivations for its composition.
Firstly, the composer's fascination with insect life and in particular the time scales of their action and repose. Scorpions provide a wonderful example in that they live an almost solitary existence, coming together only to mate and/or fight. They can move both with extremely slow and fluid movements, and blurring rapidity. The piece attempts to convey this with the juxtaposition of rapid movement and static "distant" harmonies created by using the grand piano's sostenuto pedal to evoke specific sympathetic resonances.
Secondly, it was written at a time when the I was examining, as though through a magnifying glass, my own compositional technique: I was born under the sign of Scorpio. Boulez had a particular influence on me at that time, especially his ideas for expanding and developing vertical (harmonic) serial procedures as explored in Structures II.
Work Details
Year: 1976
Duration: 5 min.
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