Relevant listening

I’m currently just finding some pieces to listen to with similar instrumentation to the players available from the SCO (flute/oboe/horn/harp/cello). I’ll just create a quick list of the pieces and what I find interesting from each of them.

Barboteu – Esquisse (Trio for Horn, Flute and Harp)

In this piece the harp acts as accompaniment underneath the dialogue between the flute and horn lines. The piece is really pretty, with the melody passing between the two wind instruments, and them responding to the lines too, and the harp creating a solid foundation for this to happen. I think when I (personally) think of horn, I usually think of more ‘epic’ music, but it was nice to see it used for lyrical lines in this piece.

Miles Wright – Interlude (Harp, Cello and 2 French Horns)

Again, this is another melodic piece, where the harp acts as accompaniment for the horn lines. There’s some use of glissando in the harp lines, and the cello seems to be acting more as a part to help sustain bass notes and harmony, rather than melodic lines. The horns very much have the tune throughout, and again the piece is demonstrating the soft and mellow qualities of the horns.

Frank Martin – Pièce Brève (Flute, Oboe, Harp)

This short piece is a bit quirkier than the previous pieces. The harmonies are less traditional than the previous pieces. The harp acts more as punctuation, with a quality very similar like pizz strings, whilst the flute and oboe have intertwining jumpy and playful lines. It’s sounds very colourful and the three instruments compliment each other very well.

Vincent Kennedy – Trio – 4th Movement/Presto (Oboe, Cello and Harp)

Again, this is another very short piece and is light and playful in character. The harp has the main rythmic ostinato/melody(?) and is accompanied by the cello by a variety of pizz and staccato passages before the oboe joins in with playing the harp line in unison. I like the doubling of the melody on the oboe and thought that the passages with the cello providing some harmonic background were pleasant too. This piece, along with the last one, has made me want to write something a little more upbeat and light-hearted compared to my last few pieces. We’ll see how it goes though! It may just be a section, or the whole piece.