Scamander

First Performances:
Callino Quartet
Homerton College, Cambridge
27 April 2019

​Barber Institute, Birmingham
10 May 2019

​Duration:
11 minutes

Image:
Paul Klee, The Rhine at Duisburg

Programme note:
In Greek mythology, Scamander was a river-god, son of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, and the personification of the eponymous river that flowed across the plain of Troy. This mythological background suggests the idea of a river journey, whose bends enable views of the same landscape features from different perspectives. The musical flow explores a number of rhythmic and melodic figures, and generates considerable tension in its contrast of fast and slow motion. After a brief slow introduction, quicker material bubbles into action, and as the rhythmic activity tightens, some slower melodic lines begin to penetrate the weave until a point of maximum tension is reached about two-thirds of the way through the 14-minute span. But it’s the slow music that wins out finally, and the musical river spreads out into a delta-like coda before reaching the open sea.

(John Hopkins)