Obbligati I, Op. 3 (1965)

This concertante work is one of a pair which explore certain possibilities of the larger chamber ensemble. It is a piece in which the idea of the tutti is of great importance, and its seven sections, separated by brief pauses, show a continual tendency to build up and dissolve in various ways moments when the entire ensemble is used. Those portions of the work in which solos appear emphasise the contrast of the constituent groups of the ensemble, winds, strings and percussion, as well as being points on the way to establishing or changing situations where the groups are used as interacting masses.

These tuttis are very often made up of music which in another context might have been deployed as a series of solos, contains within themselves contrasts of attack, rhythm and timbre. It is from this concept that the title Obbligati derives, for an obbligato is a musical gesture which does not conform to the notion of a solo thrown into relief by an accompaniment, nor on the other hand to the function of an accompaniment itself, but rather occupies an intermediate position between these ideas.

The seven sections are further characterised by a contrast of metrical and non-metrical material. During the first the timbral qualities of the instruments are introduced, and the three groups are strongly contrasted in non-metrical music.

The second and fourth sections are metrical, and the music of the groups has a more unitary nature, with fluctuations of tempo; while the third section is somewhat slower, employing pairs of instruments from the groups, also in metrical music.

This more soloistic character of the third section prepares in turn the very slow fifth section, which contains a critical conflict between metrical and non-metrical elements presented in simultaneity. The section begins with one of the few real solos in the entire work, which is gradually eroded until the music comes to a complete standstill.

The sixth section is an abrupt contrast, attempting to establish metrical music against interruptions of non-metrical material in a fast general tempo more related to sections 2-4.

The final section begins with all the instruments united in non-metrical music reminiscent of the very opening of the piece and against this background of slowly-moving sounds a trumpet solo introduces the three groups for the last time, each in a cadenza-like passage; first winds, then strings, each punctuated by percussion, whose own cadenza is interrupted by sudden ejaculations in the metrical style of the earlier quill movements. At the very moment when the metrical elements seem to be about to re-establish themselves the work comes to its end. 

Justin Connolly

Nicolas Hodges writes:

Obbligati I was first performed 20 May 1966, at a concert given at Yale University under the auspices of the New Haven chapter of the ISCM, in honour of Milton Babbitt, on the occasion of his 50th birthday. The ensemble consisted of students conducted by the composer. After this performance, Connolly rewrote the work for slightly different forces; the earlier version survives only in a recording of the premiere.

At the time of this early performance, the work bore the title Abraxas, and Connolly provided a programme note which starts thusly:

Abraxas takes its name from the Greek numeral notation attributed to Pythagoras, in which these letters in combination denoted the number 365, and were used as a charm to bring luck or to avert misfortune. There is implicit in the title the contrast of two ways of thinking: on the one hand there is reason, expressed in a number, and the irrational, expressed in terms of superstition and incantation.

The invocation, albeit brief, of “superstition and incantation” contrasts profoundly with the purely musical text Connolly wrote for the revised version, entitled Obbligati I. It reveals a hidden world, known to have appealed to the composer, ruled by the mystical power of numbers.