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Bright Cecilia: Variations on a Theme by Purcell

by Magnus Lindberg

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Purcell's music has always been very important to me, and touching art of this value is dangerous. Yet I think he lived sufficiently long ago, and is safe enough in his reputation, for us not to be scared of damaging his music. I wouldn't do such a thing with Ravel, for instance.I've taken on the sombre mood of Purcell's Funeral Music for Queen Mary that Stanley Kubrick created so successfully in his film A Clockwork Orange. He brought out its scary qualities. My variation is an amalgam of the "Great Gate of Kiev" - I wanted to call it the "Great Gate of Purcell" - and this Kubrick "take" on Purcell's music. I've respected the structure but brought my own flavour to the harmony. I'm a great fan of Francis Bacon - the way he based his work on the great tradition of anatomy but stretched and distorted it. It's a good test of a composer if, when faced with a tonal piece, your musical language is flexible enough to enter into it. I thought the least I could do is give the whole set of variations a proper tonal ending - the chord of G major. I hope it doesn't sound ridiculous: it's meant to be respectful!© Magnus Lindberg 2002(The Proms Festival, London)

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