Three Pieces after Drawings by M C Escher (1985)

1. Spiralen
2. Kringloop
3. Kleiner en Kleiner

This work was written for Duo Contemporain between September 1982 and January 1983. As I have long admired the work of M. C. Escher, it felt appropriate to use three of his drawings as the source of inspiration for a work commissioned by a Dutch group which would be premiered in the Netherlands.

Although the work uses a different drawing as the starting point for each of the three pieces, as a set they form one structural arch. The first, Spiralen, consists of four variations connected by substantial bridge passages. Overall, the music gradually increases in complexity and intensity to create a large-scale structural upbeat. The tension of this upbeat is released with the beginning of the second piece, Kringloop, which acts as a fast interlude between the other pieces. This has a ternary structure in which the outer sections are double canons. The third piece, Kleiner en Kleiner, picks up from the high bass clarinet E-flat with which the first piece ended. It consists of a passacaglia theme which, in keeping with the title of the piece, gradually diminishes in terms of the length of the notes as well as dynamic, so that by the end the music consists of quiet, isolated, staccato pitches that eventually return to the opening music of Spiralen.

The work was premiered on 13 March 1985 at Rotterdam Conservatoire, Holland by Duo Contemporain – Henri Bok, bass clarinet and Evert le Mair, marimba. 

Philip Grange