4 (mere) Bagatelles

COMMISSIONED BY  |  The Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts with funds provided by the Colwinston Charitable Trust

​

PROGRAMME NOTE  |  As with my last (and thus far only) foray into the string quartet medium the spectre of an immense and impressive historical cannon of works loomed large. In Arbor Low I had the welcome distraction of a poet to work with which produced a context in which to work. However, this time I was on my own. Luckily only a smallish piece was required so this led me to look at the Stravinsky 3 pieces and the Webern Bagatelles. Having found some inspiration from the relative sparseness of these works I then decided that I would take one aspect from a number of well-known pieces from the canon (including ones that I knew would be in this concert) and use those as starting points. So instead of being afraid of these masterworks, they became the raw material – cheeky perhaps, but not uncommon amongst composers. The first movement draws on Mozart’s ‘Dissonance’ quartet, the second on Stravinsky’s 3 Pieces, the third draws upon Debussy’s quartet and the Beethoven A minor as does the final movement which in tone and mood has reflections of Tippett – whose own quartets are criminally overlooked too much of the time. The fun in writing this piece came from how obvious or not I decided to make the references at certain points. It would be a mini quartet-spotters quiz if you like if I had not given you all the answers already. I also wanted to write a quartet that could be played by young quartets who are perhaps interested in new repertoire but not quite ready to tackle the new-complexity composers!  The (mere) in the title is an old family joke concerning my late Grandad’s favourite expression when he had won at cards 

or Monopoly. The piece is dedicated to his memory.

​

KEY PERFORMANCES  | 

World Premiere  |  Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts 2007

24.08.2007

Venue  |  St Andrew's Church, Presteigne, UK

Performers  |  Psophos Quartet

​

REVIEWS | Joe Duddell’s Four (mere) Bagatelles had a wonderful clarity and assurance, expressed most tellingly in the chords of the third bagatelle, which reached a positively serene acquiescence.

- Rian Evans, The Guardian.