Concerto for Orchestra (1988)
(Labyrinthe Images)

This work was written between October 1987 and May 1988. The bipartite title reflects it exploration of various aspects of orchestral virtuosity against a background of some of the famous labyrinth myths. The work’s four movements form a continuous span, but each is clearly characterised by the different way it divides the orchestra and treats the musical material. The first movement splits the orchestra into four groups, the instrumentation of which is determined by tessitura. These groups are also characterised by their own harmony, tempo, rhythm and melodic ideas, which are subject to variation with their every return. The tenor ensemble, first heard near the beginning of the work in a brooding trombone solo, gradually dominates the movement by absorbing the other groups into its mood of foreboding. The movement is entitled Merels after the board game played on a labyrinth design, as the kaleidoscope of variations continually trying to block each other was suggested by the nature of the game.

The first movement is designed to be analogous to Theseus’s journey through the labyrinth and forms a large structural upbeat to the second, which was inspired by his fight with the Minotaur. This divides the orchestra by pitting winds against strings with the percussion controlling the dramatic flow. The movement is entitled Asterion, after one of the names given to the Minotaur, and deals with the fragmentation and development of material from the first movement.

Following the climax of the fast aggressive second movement the music subsides into the slow third. This is entitled Snail Creep after the labyrinthine processional dance found in Cornwall. It starts with a double bassoon solo and proceeds by exploring various families of wind instruments against a string background. The movement employs slow transformations that restore and rebuild the work’s fragmented materials. In the final movement the strings come to the fore, while the winds provide colouring. The movement forms a short coda and is entitled Geranos, after the dance that Theseus is credited with inventing to depict his journey through the labyrinth. Little is known of the Geranos, but here it consists of a dance of irregular pulses. The manner in which the movements explore a different division of the players reflects my concern not only to write a piece for orchestra, but also one about it.

The Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by the St Magnus Festival with funds from the Scottish Arts Council. It was given a studio premiere in May 1988 at New Broadcasting House, Manchester by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Its public premiere was given by the same performers on 21 June 1988 at the St Magnus Festival, Orkney.

Philip Grange