- Elizabeth Maconchy
Piccola Musica (1980)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival
Programme Note
There is a world of differences between writing a String Trio and a String Quartet- just how different it is may only be realised by those who, like me, have done both.
After writing twelve String Quartets over the years, I have found it stimulating and intriguing to try my hand at a Trio and to discover the differences in texture, the new kind of ideas that it generates, and above all the different ‘‘feel’’ of it. I hope that some of the enjoyment I have had in writing it may be reflected in the music.
PICCOLA MUSICA is in five short movements, independent of each other, apart from the ‘’tie-up’’ between numbers I and V. The texture is in the main contrapuntal, though less consistently so than in my Quartets, and the mood is more relaxed.
The five ‘’piccoli movimenti’’ are:
I Allegro moderato
II Andante
III Moderato
IV Poco lento
V Allegro moderato- meno mosso-allegro moderato: in its end is its beginning.
Elizabeth Maconchy
May 1981
After writing twelve String Quartets over the years, I have found it stimulating and intriguing to try my hand at a Trio and to discover the differences in texture, the new kind of ideas that it generates, and above all the different ‘‘feel’’ of it. I hope that some of the enjoyment I have had in writing it may be reflected in the music.
PICCOLA MUSICA is in five short movements, independent of each other, apart from the ‘’tie-up’’ between numbers I and V. The texture is in the main contrapuntal, though less consistently so than in my Quartets, and the mood is more relaxed.
The five ‘’piccoli movimenti’’ are:
I Allegro moderato
II Andante
III Moderato
IV Poco lento
V Allegro moderato- meno mosso-allegro moderato: in its end is its beginning.
Elizabeth Maconchy
May 1981
Scores
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