Paul Patterson
Europhony
Duration: 15'
Instrumentation details:
0 2 0 0 - 2 0 0 0 - str
Patterson - Europhony for chamber orchestra
Audio preview
Work introduction
The unusual title of this work stems from the fact that
it was commissioned by the European Community Chamber Orchestra for European
Music Year 1985 with funds made available by the Arts Council of Great Britain.
I chose for my work a variation form to create a showpiece for chamber
orchestra in many contrasting moods with a unifying theme. The piece lasts 16
minutes and falls into 9 sections: an opening theme, 7 main variations – each
with having other variations within them – and a final codetta.
It opens with a tranquil statement of the theme on the oboe, then a link
passage (which is also used as the final statement) leads to a fast
highly-charged outgoing movement. A dramatic variation follows featuring bold
exchanges which contrast loud with soft.
In variation 3 a gentle melody is heard in displaced waltz time. The next
variation is for strings alone playing pizzicato throughout. Solo oboe and
strings feature in the following nocturne. The sixth variation is a sort of ‘galop’
with fragments of the theme passed between oboes, and later in violins, in
canon. Some double tonguing on the oboe leads straight into a ‘march grotesque’
which in turn leads to the brief codetta.
Paul Patterson