Abstract Mirror

Score

Forces or Category: String quintet

Abstract Mirror is a single movement work for string quintet
The composer writes: 'After listening to the Schubert Quintet, it occurred to me that one of the many virtues of that score is the way the second cello is absorbed effortlessly into the texture. I became fascinated with the reverse, highlighting the added sonority of the bass texture.' The title refers not only to the reverse image that a mirror provides but also to the idea of fragmentation, refraction, and distortion.

Abstract Mirror

Score

Michael Berkeley

Description

Abstract Mirror is a single movement work for string quintet
The composer writes: 'After listening to the Schubert Quintet, it occurred to me that one of the many virtues of that score is the way the second cello is absorbed effortlessly into the texture. I became fascinated with the reverse, highlighting the added sonority of the bass texture.' The title refers not only to the reverse image that a mirror provides but also to the idea of fragmentation, refraction, and distortion.

Programme Notes:

I have, for many years, wanted to write a quintet using an extra cello. Listening to the great Schubert Quintet, it occurred to me that one of the many virtues of that score is the way the second cello is absorbed effortlessly into the texture whereas I became fascinated with quite the reverse; with pointing up the added sonority of bass texture even, at one point, lowering the bottom string of the second cello. I was also attracted to the idea of initially using the viola as a sort

Abstract Mirror

Score

Michael Berkeley

Composer Information

Michael Berkeley (b.1948)

Michael Berkeley was born in 1948. He studied composition, singing, and piano at the Royal Academy of Music but it was not until his late twenties, when he went to study with Richard Rodney Bennett, that Berkeley began to concentrate exclusively on composing. In 1977 he was awarded the Guinness Prize for Composition; two years later he was appointed Associate Composer to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since then Michael's music has been played all over the globe and by some of the world's finest musicians. Most of Michael's significant orchestral work, much of his chamber music and his operas are available on CD as part of the Chandos Berkeley Edition. For ten years from 1995 Michael was artistic director of the Cheltenham International Festival of Music. He currently presents Radio 3's Private Passions, which won the Broadcasting Press Guild's Radio Programme of the Year Award in 1996, and is Chairman of the Governors of The Royal Ballet.

Michael Berkeley's website