scoring: clarinet, violin, cello
duration: 16 minutes
composed 1971
dedication:
commissioned: Extra-mural Department of Birmingham University
published: Novello/Wise Music
status: available for performance
First performed February 5, 1971, in the theatre of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, by the Nash Ensemble: Antony Pay, clarinet, Jürgen Hess, violin, and Jennifer Ward-Clarke, violoncello.
Metier MEX 77209 (future release - in preparation)
Triad V was written for members of the Nash Ensemble, and continues a series of works begun in 1964. Each of them is in three movements, though they display wide differences of emotional content as well as of formal device.
This piece is the only one so far to preserve a unity of tempo throughout its length; though there are quick-moving passages from time to time, the overall pace of the music is slow from beginning to end. Use is made of repetition, both of motives and phrase structures in a way not to be found in the other members of the set, and its three movements may be understood as three views of similar events. The result is rather like taking three photographs of a piece of sculpture from such positions as will emphasize diversity at the same time as drawing attention to an underlying unity of form.
Triad V was commissioned by the Extra-mural Department of Birmingham University, and performed for the first time on February 5, 1971, in the theatre of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, by Antony Pay, clarinet, Jürgen Hess, violin, and Jennifer Ward-Clarke, violoncello.
Justin Connolly
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