Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Précis
Duration: 5'
Dedication: For John Ogdon
Instrumentation details:
piano
Birtwistle - Précis for piano
Work introduction
Harrison
Birtwistle - Precis
Written in
1959, this was among Birtwistle's
earliest acknowledged works, and its medium, the solo piano, is one to which he
has never returned. If this suggests that it is not entirely characteristic, it
still contains some distinctive features despite the evident pressure of
influences on a young composer in the late fifties, principally those of
Maxwell Davies and Stockhausen. What belongs most particularly to Birtwistle is
the dramatic use of repetition. The work is divided into five short fragments,
of which the first is followed by a short “refrain” played fortissimo, while
the last is preceded by the same tiny idea, this time entering pianissimo. Less
immediately obvious is the fact that the fifth fragment is essentially a
retrograde of the first.
Paul Griffiths, 1981