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Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Michael Blake Watkins
Etalage (1979)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Written for City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Programme Note
Michael Blake Watkins: étalage: a Concerto for Orchestra
As a result of my winning the Fifth Guinness Prize for Composition in March 1978, I was commissioned to write a showpiece for orchestra. The work is called étalage, the French word meaning ‘display’. As the title would imply, it highlights many of the instruments of the orchestra, both as soloists and in ensemble.
The piece is one movement. It opens with a distant pianissimo leading almost immediately to a fanfare dominated by the brass and punctuated by the woodwind and strings. A contrasting twelve-note theme follows and this can be heard passing from instrument to instrument, often in canon. The opening material reappears briefly before leading to a dramatic climax. A cantilena for solo oboe accompanied by shimmering chords gives away to a distant echo of the twelve-note theme played by the flutes, which in turn leads to a slower section.
This slower section is interrupted by a more agitated idea building up to an outburst from the trumpets and percussion. After a subdued section, a passionate string quartet leads to a big climax. This is turn subdued by a gentle passage for solo viola and orchestra.
A pulsating bass begins the build-up of tension for the final fast section. Various themes reappear to be cut off by the brass interjections, and a brief reminder of the opening fanfare leads the work to its dramatic conclusion.
© Michael Blake Watkins
As a result of my winning the Fifth Guinness Prize for Composition in March 1978, I was commissioned to write a showpiece for orchestra. The work is called étalage, the French word meaning ‘display’. As the title would imply, it highlights many of the instruments of the orchestra, both as soloists and in ensemble.
The piece is one movement. It opens with a distant pianissimo leading almost immediately to a fanfare dominated by the brass and punctuated by the woodwind and strings. A contrasting twelve-note theme follows and this can be heard passing from instrument to instrument, often in canon. The opening material reappears briefly before leading to a dramatic climax. A cantilena for solo oboe accompanied by shimmering chords gives away to a distant echo of the twelve-note theme played by the flutes, which in turn leads to a slower section.
This slower section is interrupted by a more agitated idea building up to an outburst from the trumpets and percussion. After a subdued section, a passionate string quartet leads to a big climax. This is turn subdued by a gentle passage for solo viola and orchestra.
A pulsating bass begins the build-up of tension for the final fast section. Various themes reappear to be cut off by the brass interjections, and a brief reminder of the opening fanfare leads the work to its dramatic conclusion.
© Michael Blake Watkins