Diptych (2007)
Diptych (2007)
- …{Image}…
- …{Reflection}…
12′
String Quartet (vln (2), vla, vcl)
fp. 25 April 2007; Carducci Quartet, Concert Hall, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
Diptych (2007) (pdf)
PROGRAMME NOTE
Although Diptych was commissioned in December 2004 (for performance in 2007) I didn’t begin composing the piece until December 2006, nearly two years after the initial commission date. This is only of relevance because it highlights the gestation period that the work had before I was actually able to begin composing; for amongst all my works, Diptych has perhaps the strictest formal scheme, and multiple influences colliding to form the finished work.
I had long been fascinated by the anonymous 14th-century diptych, the ‘Wilton Diptych’ (which is currently housed in the National Gallery in London) and had wanted to somehow work in this fascination and influence into a piece; the commission of a string quartet seemed like the perfect opportunity for this. The influence of the ‘Wilton Diptych’ on Diptych is all-pervading, though is perhaps most important in the form of my work; for at its most basic level Diptych is in two movements, reflecting the two central panels of the Diptych. The first movement: …{Image}… is a representation of the left-hand panel (depicting King Richard II, John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Saxon Martyr-King), the second movement: …{Reflection}… being a representation of the right hand panel (depicting the Christ-Child, the Virgin Mary and a host of angels). The characters portrayed in each panel thus reflect how the string quartet is divided; therefore in the first movement we have a three against one relationship (with the first violin pitted against the rest of the quartet), in the second movement we have a two versus two relationship (with violins against lower strings).
The composition of the ‘Wilton Diptych’ is again represented by the musical material of each movement, for the panel is divided neatly into what we may class as sacred and secular, or earthly and celestial. The presence of the king and the saints is mirrored, or balanced by the heavenly figures (or so it may seem); therefore the first movement has a more “earthly” feel, the second perhaps more ethereal. This dichotomy was furthered by working in ideas taken from the life and times of King Richard II, the king who perhaps most believed in the divine right of kings and the similarity of the kingdom of Plantagenet England and the Kingdom of Heaven. The idea that there are two ways of viewing his reign, firstly from an historical viewpoint (weak, vain monarch, Peasant’s Revolt, seeds of the War of the Roses), secondly from how he may have viewed his reign (preparation for entry into Heaven, glorification of Christ on earth), imbued my take on the Diptych with further weight. Therefore
…{Image}…is a representation of how we now view Richard’s reign (as well as being a depiction of secular and earthly); …{Reflection}…is how he may have viewed it (as well as being a depiction of sacred and celestial).
Each movement follows the same basic form of ABAB, where B is ‘crisis’ material given the subtitle of ‘1387’ and ‘1399’; these dates relate to the moment where the Barons revolted against Richard’s court (1387) and when Richard was deposed and ultimately executed (1399). In both movements, these are the only times when the four strings purposefully play together, rather then are forced together. In the first movement this materialises as harsh, dissonant chords; in the second as more melodic, cantabile material. We can therefore view both movements as being essentially two versions of the same image, for alongside sharing the same form, they also share the same harmonic structure.
Other influences are also present in the work; not least a sizeable quotation from Janáček’s The House of the Dead, and an attempt at replicating a long-held fascination with Lutosławskian two-movement form. This melting-pot of many, and diverse influences is in the main, why Diptych took two years to gestate, but only three months to compose.
PAC