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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.