Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Down by the Greenwood Side
Short instrumentation: 1 0 1 1 - 0 0 1 0 - perc(1), cornet, euph, vln(1), vc(1)
Duration: 30'
Libretto von: Michael Nyman
Roles:
Mrs. Green
soprano<BR>Father Christmas / St. George / Bold Slasher / Dr. Blood
speaker<BR>Jack Finney
mime
Instrumentation details:
fl (+ picc, Afl), cl(Bb) (+ cl(Eb), bass cl), bs (+ cbsn) - cornet(Bb), tbn, Euph - perc(1), vln(1), vc(1)
Birtwistle - Down by the Greenwood Side
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Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Birtwistle: Down by the Greenwood Side for flute, clarinet, cornet, trombone, euphonium, percussion, violin and celloOrchestration: for flute, clarinet, cornet, trombone, euphonium, percussion, violin and cello
Type: Partitur
Language: Englisch (Großbritannien)
Audio preview
Work introduction
Down by
the Greenwood Side was commissioned fort he 1969 Brighton Festival. The
text comes from two sources: a popular ballad called “The Cruel Mother”, and
passages from various mummer plays, the folk plays of the English countryside.
The soprano, Mrs. Green, sings the ballad while the actors and mime perform the
play. The two ingredients never meet; both are completely self-contained,
involved only in themselves. But near the end, in the final tableau, there is a
slight acknowledgement of each other’s worlds when the presenter of the
mummers’ play, Father Christmas, completes the story Mrs. Green has been
telling, and Mrs. Green momentarily enters the mummers’ acting area.
Programme
Notes by Michael Hall
BBC
Proms 1972