H. Biggs: Reveries. Passions.
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- Composer: Hayes Biggs (1957-)
- Format: Set of Parts
- Instrumentation: Piano Quartet (Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello)
- Work: Reveries. Passions. (2020)
- ISMN:
- Size: 8.9 x 12.0 inches
Description
Composer's Note:
I began working on Reveries. Passions. in 1990. It is a piece that, it turns out, I was not yet ready to write when I began struggling with my initial ideas for it. in addition, the vagaries of life and various other projects got in the way, and, though I occasionally glanced at it and picked at it a bit, I basically put it away for about 20 years and really didn't resume work on it in earnest until around 2012.
The quartet might be described as a reflection of my love of nineteenth century music, particularly in its more obsessive and extreme manifestations. My title refers to that of the opening movement of Symphonie fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un artiste ... en cinq parties (Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist, in five parts) by Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), an arch-Romantic if ever there was one.
When I began writing Reveries. Passions., I spent time looking at and listening to many quartets and quintets for piano and strings, from the standard ones by Mozart, Brahms, and Fauré to more modern examples by Aaron Copland and my first composition teacher Don Freund, but the one that had the most profound effect on me was Schumann's Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47, particularly its slow movement, with its beautiful cantilena and the scordatura low B-flat pedal point in the cello at the end. I quote from the opening of Schumann's first movement near the conclusion of my quartet. Here is a brief synopsis of the three movements of Reveries. Passions.:
I. Passion awakened. The first movement, bearing the indication "Wistful," starts softly and tentatively and becomes increasingly agitated, building to an outburst in the cello, marked appassionato, accompanied by tremolo figures in the other instruments. Once this has subsided, a lyrical tune is introduced in the viola and developed, ultimately leading to a recapitulation of the opening material and a subdued, somewhat austere and desolate sounding coda.
II. Passion mocked. This scherzo is a flippant, sardonic take on the folksong "Barb'ry Allen." The lyrics of that song — which with the right performer can be a very sad, beautiful and moving one — concern a young woman spurning the love of her suitor, who lies on his deathbed. She is angry that he once slighted her while drinking toasts with and to his friends at a tavern, and on her arrival at his bedside she greets him coldly with the words, "Young man, I think you're dying." After she leaves and the young man proves that her observation was indeed correct, Barb'ry Allen hears his funeral bells tolling and dies of a broken heart. in many versions of the song, the two end up buried in the same churchyard, and a rose growing from his grave intertwines with a briar growing from hers in a "true lovers' knot." My treatment of the song ignores these more heartwarming parts of the story.
III. Passion recalled. Marked "Lento (Wistful)," this movement commences with a ruminative — one might say bittersweet — piano solo, which gradually grows in volume and intensity, culminating in the sudden entry of the strings, which bring back material from the first movement, including the lyrical tune initially heard in the viola (the same instrument that plays it this time around). After the climax, all the instruments join to recap the material of the opening piano solo, eventually introducing the Schumann quotation and a quiet ending.
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H. Biggs: Reveries. Passions.
