Richard Causton

Saraband / The Way the World Ends

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Forces or Category: String orchestra

Orchestration: Strings only (min. 7, 5, 3, 3, 2 because of divisi passages, includes soli)

for strings
The piece is in two short movements: Saraband is buoyant, energetic, and wild; and The Way the World Ends is elegiac and melancholic. Both pieces contrast the violins with the other stringed instruments by giving each gruop a very different kind of music. Minimum forces 7.5.4.3.2.

Saraband / The Way the World Ends

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Richard Causton

Description

Programme Notes:

In each of these two short movements, the violins are pitted against the other stringed instruments, with each group playing a quite different kind of music. The Saraband (the early, boisterous form of the dance, rather than the stately one) for the lower strings is intruded upon, then overpowered by, solo violin cadenzas. The Way the World Ends opens with a slow hocket in natural harmonics, which alternates and is then combined with an undulating cantilena for muted violins,

Saraband / The Way the World Ends

Conductor's score and parts on hire

Richard Causton

Composer Information