Concerto For Flute And Chamber Orchestra - SCORE

Concerto for Solo Flute & Chamber Orchestra

Orchestration:

1.(picc.) 1.1.1. 1.1.1.0.1. 1perc. pno. s.fl. strings.

Duration: c.20'

Please Note: This work is in five movements and must be performed as a complete work.

Programme note:

Concerto For Flute & Chamber Orchestra is a piece that explores the musical relationship between soloist and ensemble, with the aim to blur the distinction between these two forces. The flute in particular, owes itself to blending with various different instrumental combinations, alongside the more soloistic capabilities including agility and souring melodic lines. In this substantial piece, I use the flute and orchestra to explore how musical material can remain static whilst the environment surrounding them, whether that be textural or timbral, can change their perception and individual personality. By allowing the musical material to be explored through different perspectives, I allow the ideas to evolve over the course of five movements, rather than having isolated ideas with little relationship to the overarching trajectory of the work.

Despite being in five distinctive movements with their own unique personality and character, the music is based around two cellular ideas. The first is cantus firmus line presented in the solo flute, the second is a scalic figuration which is fully explored in the brisk second movement. The middle movements form a quiet crisis, where both the flute and orchestra feature their own solo movements, where the music reaches two perspectives on ‘static’ music. The final, fifth, movement is the most ‘traditional’ movement in regards to the relationship between soloist and ensemble. This dramatic and rhythmical movement brings together and combines the textures and thematic material from the preceding music to form a rondo structure, with the only new material being a three-note fanfare motif. The music works itself into a frenzy where the excitement of this concerto reaches a culmination, with the flute piercing in its upper register. After this point, the music looses its identity and cannot return to what preceded it. The orchestration dissolves away only leaving a duet between the flutes. 

This Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra was written for the flautist Charlotte Ballard, and the Manchester Music Society Chamber Orchestra. They subsequently gave the premier performance, conducted by Robert Guy on the 25th February, 2023, in the Cosmo Rodewald Hall, Manchester.