M. Berkeley: For The Savage Messiah
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- Composer: Michael Berkeley (1948-)
- Format: Full Score
- Instrumentation: Piano Quintet (Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass)
- Work: For the Savage Messiah (1985)
- ISBN:
- Size: 8.9 x 12.0 inches
- Pages: 33
Description
The music begins with a large boulder of sound on the piano that triggers off a scrambling burst of notes on the other instruments, with whom it is frequently in conflict. As the composition developed I became more and more conscious of a very physical relationship with the music. I felt as I imagined a sculptor must feel, moulding and chipping away tangible textures, and at this point I reread H.S. Edes Savage Messiah - a remarkable portrait of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, the French sculptor who died in the trenches in 1915 at the age of 24. The preceding years were filled with dynamic, not to say demonic, creativity, passionate love and tragedy. Gaudier added the Brzeska to his name having fallen in love with Sophie Brzeska, a disturbed Polish woman almost twice Gaudiers age, who died in an asylum in 1925. Their life in Paris and London was marked by extreme poverty and work of real brilliance. Gaudier was a fabulous draughtsman, but coupled to his delicate lines there seems to me a boulder-like massiveness born of frenetic energy. But it is perhaps most of all the awful inevitability of his life and the appalling waste at its ending that are echoed in the music. The boulder, like the Savage Messiah, is both the man and his destiny.
Duration: 12 m.
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Choral Score
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Solo Part with Piano Reduction
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A small (think choral size) copy of the complete score meant for studying, and not playing. They make great add-ons when learning concertos and small chamber works.
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A score prepared for vocalists that includes the piano/organ part or a reduction of the instrumental parts.
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M. Berkeley: For The Savage Messiah
