Spirit of the Staircase has a lot of very fast music and a lot of very slow music, and often frequent changes between the two.
The fast music often features long staircase-like chains of semiquavers winding upwards and downwards – incrementally climbing or descending before leaping back a few steps and starting again. These are first introduced by a solo piano around three minutes in, but increasingly come to dominate the music in various guises in the first half and last third of the piece. In between these poles, an extended section of music sees the ensemble steadily drift through a sonically strange terrain. This music’s sinuous progress is punctuated only by solos from an enigmatic muted trombone, an insouciant celesta and (most significantly) a leaping, fanfare-like bass flute.
In French, ‘l’esprit de l’escalier’ (staircase wit) is the name given to the phenomenon of thinking of a perfect retort or remark only after the event (when one is already halfway down the staircase).
Dedicated at considerable velocity towards Camden Reeves.
Instrumentation:
15 instruments: 1(=picc+bfl).1.1(=cbcl).cbsn – 1.1.1.0 – perc(1): glsp/vib/mar/bongos/3 tuned gongs – pno(=cel) – harp – 1.1.1.1.1
Duration:
18 mins
Commission:
Commissioned by London Sinfonietta with support from Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner and an Elliott Carter legacy
Performances:
1 Jun 2016
London Sinfonietta, Martyn Brabbins (cond.)
St John’s Smith Square, London, UK
World premiere