Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Judith Weir
Tiger under the Table (2002)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta
- 1(pic)111/1110/perc/pf/str(1.1.1.1.1)
- 15 min
Programme Note
"A group of bright-toned winds shares the stage with a mellow trumpet and a furious bassoonist. Somewhere in the far distance a celestial string quartet is occasionally heard. Sometime later, mutual comprehension begins to dawn. Strange trios and quartets are fleetingly set up and
abandoned; there is a breakaway attempt to perform a piano concerto. Finally, all fourteen players elect to form a band and play together, which they do at first tentatively and with much pointillism, later in a dark hued two-part invention. The music closes with the whole ensemble on the verge of a warmly shared unison, ending with a fragmentary coda.
Tiger under the Table (the title refers to exceptional energy in the bass register) was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta and written during 2002-3. Its duration is fifteen minutes."
abandoned; there is a breakaway attempt to perform a piano concerto. Finally, all fourteen players elect to form a band and play together, which they do at first tentatively and with much pointillism, later in a dark hued two-part invention. The music closes with the whole ensemble on the verge of a warmly shared unison, ending with a fragmentary coda.
Tiger under the Table (the title refers to exceptional energy in the bass register) was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta and written during 2002-3. Its duration is fifteen minutes."
Scores
Preview the score
Reviews
...'Tiger under the Table' is for 14 players. Four of them are a string quartet; the otehrs, like the quartet, are living in their own worlds but try to figure out a way to live together. The piece is cheeky, entertaining, truthful. It holds the mirror up to human nature and points to a better, more harmonious way.'
18th April 2004
Judith Weir's Tiger Under the Table, receiving its world premiere, proved a typically inventive musical fable.
23rd March 2003
Woolrich mentioned that his jump-cutting score has a "cartoon violence", and a cartoon quality seemed to inform Judith Weir's new Tiger Under the Table, commissioned by the Sinfonietta. She provided her 15 minute movement with an abstract scenario: "A group of bright-toned winds shares the stage with a mellow trumpet and a furious bassoonist. Somewhere in the far distance a celestial string quartet is occassionally heard", and so on. It is pure, witty Weir, with the instruments in capers like cat and mouse, and the bass department - a memorable opening duo for bassoon and double bass - supplying the tiger. The writing for quartet was suitably dreamy. Elsewhere, it could be chunky, but always with a line-drawing simplicity after the composer's fashion.
23rd March 2003