Description

Four instruments (clarinet, violin, cello and piano) come together in the sound-world of Mana, balancing and complementing one another. The work grows out of a tiny germ with the musical events developing around a basic kernel. Different playing techniques show the thematic material in different lights, revealing new aspects and sharpening its profile. A meditative strain - sometimes elegiac and sometimes dramatic in character - runs through the whole work. A rhythmic figure in the piano makes its presence felt, sometimes as a mysterious undertone, sometimes dramatically insistent, and isolated staccato notes interjected over silently depressed cluster chords leave a haze of overtones. Violent contrasts, both in expression and dynamics, succeed one another. While the formal structure is always apparent, the utmost sensitivity of expression is present throughout: a butterfly's wing brushed by ardent passion.

© Erik Bergman, ca. 1992

(Novello)

Instrumentation

cl, pno, vln, vlc

Category

Chamber Works

Opus no.

op.117

Premiere

Washington Music Ensemble, Washington D.C., September 27, 1991

Commisioned by / dedications

Commissioned by and dedicated to Washington Music Ensemble

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