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<\/a>Kandinsky’s “Composition IV” first ‘heard’ in bar 5 of the piece<\/p><\/div>\n
Sawyers also found an apt programmatic use for his trios of wind and brass instruments:<\/p>\n
The piled-up major triads presented polytonally in a quick rhythm, first heard in the fourth bar and recurring throughout the piece, are representative of Kandinsky\u2019s great \u2018splashes\u2019 of colour. Because I had three of each woodwind and brass instrument to work with, these triads could have a pure instrumental colour. It\u2019s something that I couldn\u2019t have done with double woodwinds because the third voice would have to be a different timbre, so it was a nice use of the larger orchestral forces.<\/p>\n
Although written in a 21st <\/span>Century musical language, there are strong similarities in Sawyers\u2019s approach to form in this symphonic poem and that taken by Richard Strauss over a century earlier. In both cases, the work\u2019s relationship to its subject matter is more poetic and evocative than programmatic and descriptive, and the external poetic inspiration is expressed within a rigorous, abstract musical form. Hommage to Kandinsky <\/span>has many of the\u00a0elements of a hugely expanded, and somewhat modified, sonata-allegro <\/span>form such as one might find in Strauss\u2019s Ein Heldenleben <\/span>or Tod und Verkl\u00e4rung , <\/span>or, for that matter, the first\u00a0movements of Mahler\u2019s Sixth of Seventh symphonies.<\/p>\nOn the surface, the work is quite sectional, with recurring structural areas which have elements of a slow (Adagio<\/span>) introduction, a violent march-like section (Allegro<\/span>), a lyrical Andante <\/span>(which later becomes an Adagio<\/span>) and a scherzando <\/span>section in 6\/8 time (Vivace<\/span>). This is not something one often encounters in Sawyers\u2019s symphonies and concertos, in which most movements are in a single tempo and metre. However, Sawyers has managed to achieve a high degree of motivic and thematic interconnection between the various sections,\u00a0and the transitions between sections are imaginative and fascinating.<\/p>\nThe work opens pianissimo <\/span>with the note C spread across five octaves. The first hint of\u00a0melodic activity is a falling semitone from C-B in the second violins in the second bar,\u00a0followed by two more. Both the single semitone, and the descending chromatic scale will\u00a0prove to be crucially important ideas in the work. Within just a few bars, we are introduced\u00a0to Sawyers\u2019s polytonal \u201csplashes of colour\u201d and the theme based on Kandinsky\u2019s\u00a0Composition IV<\/span>. We also hear a portentous rising theme which starts like a minor scale, then\u00a0ascends in fourths. With surprising speed in such slow music, we\u2019ve already heard much of\u00a0the thematic material for the work by the time the low brass enter with the first fortissimo\u00a0<\/span>which heralds the breakthrough into the march-like Allegro<\/span>.<\/p>\nThe Allegro <\/span>couldn\u2019t be much farther from the Adagio <\/span>in tempo, texture and mood, but it is\u00a0closely thematically linked to what we\u2019ve just heard. The strings attack the rising theme, now fast and fortissimo<\/span>, as the horns take authoritative control of the descending chromatic line\u00a0first heard in the second violins. The triadic splashes of colour explode with new vehemence\u00a0in the winds, and the low strings and low brass attack the Composition IV <\/span>theme. Once one\u00a0notices these connections, it\u2019s apparent that there is an element of both variation technique and motivic development which threads its way through the disparate sections.<\/p>\nThis first storm is short-lived and sound dissipates into a lyrical Andante episode built around a long-breathed melody first heard in the cor anglais and later played in canon by the violins. Here the accompanimental figures are particularly telling \u2013 the rising and falling semitones in the violins under the cor anglais theme form an important connection with the work\u2019s opening, while the rising octaves in the horns offer a significant foreshadowing of what is to come.<\/p>\n
The march-like Allegro <\/span>soon returns with new ferocity, with the trumpets and trombones in the foreground, and the strings exchange volleys of highly-chromatic quavers and\u00a0semiquavers in which the second voice is a \u201ccrab\u201d (or retrograde) of the first. It quickly melds into a brief waltz and then a second Andante, <\/span>in which a melancholy four-bar theme i developed through a sequence of varied Bach-ian chorale settings.<\/p>\nFinally, we have the first occurrence of the scherzando <\/span>music in 6\/8, which emerges from the Andante <\/span>which precedes it through a sequence of falling semitones like those which opened the work. Here again, the main theme is the one which we heard in the waltz, with additional significance given to the falling semitone motif. This first 6\/8 section can be seen as the \u201cend of the beginning\u201d, functioning a bit like the conclusion of the exposition with the next march section marking the beginning of a long, intense development. However, it\u2019s worth underlining that while the work has strong elements\u00a0of sonata form which are highlighted by the recurrence of the music of the opening at key structural moments, it doesn\u2019t aspire to the kind of formal closure one looks for in a\u00a0Beethoven symphony, but instead moves inexorably towards a dramatic culmination.<\/p>\nFurther detailed explanations of the musical journey are probably not needed, but it is worth\u00a0pointing out that the soaring slow melody first heard in the oboe and later, at the climax of\u00a0the whole work in the violins, is actually a rhythmic expansion of the waltz theme. One is also\u00a0advised to see how the rising octaves first heard in the horns achieve ever more significance\u00a0\u2013 this theme is further developed in the slow movement of Sawyers\u2019s Third Symphony and his\u00a0Violin Concerto, and even appears in the finale of his Fourth Symphony. And it is worth\u00a0listening out for the constant significance of the falling \u201csighing\u201d semitone and the\u00a0descending chromatic scale.<\/p>\n
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