Scherzo à la Britten
Scherzo Player
Indiana University Wind Ensemble, Reading Session
Stephen W. Pratt, Conductor
Imagine trying to understand two people talking to you at the same time – a nearly impossible task. But what if you could comprehend four or five things at the same time? In a carefully crafted piece of music, this is possible. We all know some musical examples of this: think of "Frère Jacques," "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," and if you’ve ever seen a musical, there was probably a scene near the end where several of the characters sing different melodies at the same time. From children’s songs, to musicals, to the fugues of J.S. Bach—there is something magical about these moments of musical counterpoint, and this is the phenomenon I wanted to explore in my piece.
In the simplest terms, I wanted to see how many perceivable ideas I could have going on at the same time – and it turned out to be quite a lot. The piece opens with a virtuosic fugue that is passed around each section of the band until everyone is playing. The melody is then turned upside down, chopped up, and stretched out until the piece reaches its height of complexity with everyone in the band playing something different. This section is wild, and while it is impossible to hear each instrument, we can feel what it’s like to be pushed beyond our limit of perception.
After this organized chaos, clarity returns as the original melody is played by the woodwinds superimposed over a grand brass choral version of the melody. The ending is an exuberant celebration of counterpoint.
This piece was inspired by the wonderful fugue at the end of Benjamin Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.