Partita

Description

Myxa0 Partitaxa0 for Horn, Violin and Piano was commissioned by Michael and Lenore Hatfield, hornist and violinist respectively.xa0 This combination of instruments has been used by more than a few composers , most notably the ubiquitous Trio in E-flatxa0 by Brahms, but also by later composers like Lennox Berkeley.xa0 In terms of tone color, it offers a very strange combination of sounds—the sonorous depth of the modern grand piano, the (in contrast) more airy and more delicate violin, and the rich mellow tones of the horn.xa0 How was I to balance these three disparate voices and form a homogeneous ensemble character?My answer was to capitalize on these dissimilarities, and to add a dimension of group psychology.xa0 It is no accident that there are few permanently organized professional trios: psychology tells us that three is the worst number for human interactions.xa0 With two people, there is either agreement or disagreement.xa0 With four or more, various subgroups can co-exist.xa0 But with three, more often than not, two of the participants team up, forming a union against the third, who becomes the “odd man out”.xa0 My Partita presents, in five movements, the various two-against-one or one-against-one combinations possible.xa0 The movements are organized in terms of tone color:Disagreement:Horn vs. Violin and Piano (Prelude)Piano vs. Horn and Violin (Nocturne)III. Violin vs. Piano (Intermezzo) Agreement:Horn and Violin (Aria)Horn, Violin, and Piano (Toccata)The musical language, too, reflects “differences of opinion.”xa0 The horn’s opening recitative, tonally oriented, contrasts sharply with the perky, atonal (in fact, strictly serial) music first presented by violin and piano.xa0 These two separate “musics” are the material on which all five movements are based.In an extramusical sense, the piece represents a coming-to-grips with the problem of threes.xa0 After the participants have tried pairing off in various ways, either eliminating the third party altogether or, at the very most, keeping him in his own musical corner, an argument begins (Toccata).xa0 The tonal and serial elements vie for supremacy in all three voices, until the rich E-flat melody of the Aria finds its way over the ostinato.xa0 All three players, for the first time, are in excited agreement.xa0 This being accomplished, the work ends exuberantly in a hard-won unison statement of the horn’s opening motive.