- Philip Grange
Des fins sont des commencements
- Peters Edition Limited (World)
Programme Note
I wrote Des fins sont des commencements as both a tribute to my teacher, Peter Maxwell Davies, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, and as a vehicle for the unconducted virtuosity of the ensemble Gemini. It is a dance-like overture which takes as its starting point the rondeau Ma fin est mon commencement by the 14th century composer Guillaume de Machaut. It should perhaps be regarded as an arrangement of the concept of the original rather than of its actual pitches and rhythms since it replaces Machaut’s overall symmetrical working with a series of sharply contrasting palindromes of varying lengths.
Commissioned by Gemini with funds from the Arts Council of Great Britain for an NMFS tour to mark the 60th birthday of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Des fins sont des commencements was premiered on 21 September 1994 at the Hexham Abbey Festival by Gemini.
Philip Grange