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35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts
University of Salford
Mozart Mirrors (Suite) Composed programme for Brass Band
Commissioned by Krohnengen Brass Band (Norway) for its ‘Kirkekonsert’ entry to the Grenland Festival (2012)
Performance: Krohnengen Brass Band, Dir. Allan Withington; overall winners, Grenland International Brass Festival, Skien, Oslo, Norway (February 2012).
Mozart Mirrors is based on a series of extended interpolations that link specific aspects of Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ (K.492) to thematic, harmonic and stylistic precedents found within the 17th- and 18th century canon, notably the music of Purcell, Ferrabosco, and Gervais. Once again, the ensemble is exposed to material beyond its normal frame of reference: figured bass movements from Figaro lead us to ‘Welcome to All the Pleasures : Here the Deities Approve’, from Ode to St Cecilia (Purcell); elements of voice-leading and part-writing create a direct link to ‘Pavanna’ (Ferrabosco) and, moving forward, to Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus (K.618). The centre-piece of the suite uses material derived from Nystedt’s Immortal Bach (1988), a choral work which itself transforms Bach’s ‘Komm süßer Tod’ (BWV478), and statements derived from the Nystedt are used at various points to fuse other sections of the suite as a whole. Elements of form and ornamentation in ‘Figaro’ are reflected in the early Baroque dance music of Claude Gervais in ‘Bransle de Champaigne II’. This final interpolation provides a springboard into the closing fragments of the Figaro Overture.
The composed programme received the festival’s highest award for innovation and provided a platform for Krohnengen Brass Band’s final ranking as overall winners of the Elite Division in the festival.