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- Simon Bainbridge
Landscape and Memory (1995)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Commissioned by London Sinfonietta with funds partly provided by the Arts Council of England
- 2(pic:pic,afl).ca.2(bcl).bn/1110/perc/hp.pf/str(4.0.2.2.1)
- Horn
- 16 min
Programme Note
Writing Landscape and Memory for solo horn and chamber orchestra I rediscovered an idea that first came to fruition in my piece Path to Othona, written in 1982. In both compositions the listener is invited to hear the work, not necessarily as a 'right to left' musical continuity of thematic and temporary development, but rather as an exploration in 'frozen time' of a complex multi-layered musical landscape, where both background and foreground detail are perceived from endlessly changing perspectives. The listener is in effect walking through and around the musical 'objects'.
I see this 'sculptural' listening process as being somewhat similar to finding oneself in the middle of a strange and completely unknown city, a labyrinth of roads and passageways. By slowly traversing this alien environment, one begins to remember recurring landmarks and from a virtual perception on one's surroundings, a linear pathway of connection gradually unfolds.
I have taken the liberty of using the title of Simon Schama's book, because it so admirably illustrated the intention behind this work.
© Simon Bainbridge
I see this 'sculptural' listening process as being somewhat similar to finding oneself in the middle of a strange and completely unknown city, a labyrinth of roads and passageways. By slowly traversing this alien environment, one begins to remember recurring landmarks and from a virtual perception on one's surroundings, a linear pathway of connection gradually unfolds.
I have taken the liberty of using the title of Simon Schama's book, because it so admirably illustrated the intention behind this work.
© Simon Bainbridge
Scores
Reviews
What always makes this composer’s works so rewarding is the clarity of texture, the purposefulness of direction. He selects material that remains recognisable throughout the work. There’s not a hint of intellectual showing-off, just an inexorable sense of logic enhanced by unabashed lyricism. If compositional angst was the evening’s general tone, the [London] Sinfonietta [Michael Thompson the brilliant soloist] here raised temperatures with a heat-generating performance.
1st August 1997
Bainbridge is explicitly concerned with the musical sights, to the extent of borrowing his title from Simon Schama’s most recent book…the main idea is a three-note call for the horn with a lyrical extension, which is constantly modified and developed in fresh contexts. The orchestral writing is lithe and linear, without the kind of texture-building ideas that Bainbridge has used in his recent pieces for large orchestra. There’s another horn, an echo, positioned in the auditorium, whose function becomes increasingly important as the work unfolds. In the final page, the two coalesce ecstatically with the solo horn swathed in the sympathetic reverberations of an amplified snare drum; it’s a striking and unexpected ending to an impressive piece.
1st November 1995