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- Cheryl Frances-Hoad
Five Rackets for Trio Relay (2012)
- Cadenza Music (World)
Programme Note
Commissioned by the Lawson Trio and premiered by the Lawson Trio with members of Chethams Music School at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on 7th February 2012.
The idea for Five Rackets for Trio Relay came in response to a competition for funding in connection to the London Olympics. Even though we werenʼt successful in our application, by this time the Lawson Trio and I were so invested in the project that we were determined to find other ways of making it happen. I had had such a wonderful time writing a short work for Chamber Music 2000 in 2010 (the first piece Iʼd ever written specifically with young people in mind) and was really keen to write a bigger piece. This work sees a new departure for the project in that it is the first piece Chamber Music 2000 has commissioned for both young/amateur and professional players playing together. We were privileged to be visited by some wonderful musicians at the Yehudi Menuhin School (where I studiedʻcello for ten years) and I remember how much one could learn from playing chamber music with a more experienced musician. It was with this in mind that Five Rackets was composed.
Each movement is inspired by a sport or sports, and is suitable for a different age group and/or standard. In running order, they are: Archery and Curling, (suitable for Grades 6-8), Ping Pong, Table Tennis and Wiff Waff (Grade 1), Sailing (Grades 2-3), Boxing (Grades 5-7) and Marathon, Relay, Walk, Sprint! (Grade 7-8). In the student string parts of Ping Pong, only the open strings are used (with occasional glissandos from randomly placed notes) and in Sailing, the amateur parts are limited to one hand position in both the piano and strings. I had an absolutely wonderful time writing this piece, and learnt a great deal about many sports which Iʼd previously been ignorant of! The depictions in the work are too numerous to list here, but everything from various ping pong techniques, through the heel-toe-heel-toe action of the 50k Marathon walkers, to the way that a curling stone and broom are used, are represented in the music, and marked in the score for the players to see.
© Cheryl Frances-Hoad, 2012
The idea for Five Rackets for Trio Relay came in response to a competition for funding in connection to the London Olympics. Even though we werenʼt successful in our application, by this time the Lawson Trio and I were so invested in the project that we were determined to find other ways of making it happen. I had had such a wonderful time writing a short work for Chamber Music 2000 in 2010 (the first piece Iʼd ever written specifically with young people in mind) and was really keen to write a bigger piece. This work sees a new departure for the project in that it is the first piece Chamber Music 2000 has commissioned for both young/amateur and professional players playing together. We were privileged to be visited by some wonderful musicians at the Yehudi Menuhin School (where I studiedʻcello for ten years) and I remember how much one could learn from playing chamber music with a more experienced musician. It was with this in mind that Five Rackets was composed.
Each movement is inspired by a sport or sports, and is suitable for a different age group and/or standard. In running order, they are: Archery and Curling, (suitable for Grades 6-8), Ping Pong, Table Tennis and Wiff Waff (Grade 1), Sailing (Grades 2-3), Boxing (Grades 5-7) and Marathon, Relay, Walk, Sprint! (Grade 7-8). In the student string parts of Ping Pong, only the open strings are used (with occasional glissandos from randomly placed notes) and in Sailing, the amateur parts are limited to one hand position in both the piano and strings. I had an absolutely wonderful time writing this piece, and learnt a great deal about many sports which Iʼd previously been ignorant of! The depictions in the work are too numerous to list here, but everything from various ping pong techniques, through the heel-toe-heel-toe action of the 50k Marathon walkers, to the way that a curling stone and broom are used, are represented in the music, and marked in the score for the players to see.
© Cheryl Frances-Hoad, 2012