Program notes

Septet no. 1, opus 16 (1984)

  1. 1. Invocation
  2. 2. On the edge

Septet was commissioned by the Seymour Group with funds provided by the Australia Council’s Music Board. The work is scored for flute (doubling piccolo), B flat clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), trombone, percussion, piano, violin, and cello. The Seymour Group, conducted by Stuart Challender, premiered the work in September 1984 at the Everest Theatre, Seymour Centre, Sydney.

Septet is an expansive and substantial work written during the first half of 1984 whilst I was a student of George Crumb’s on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA. The slow-fast two movement shape was a favourite for me in a number of works from this period. The first movement is gentle and based around an unfolding pattern of harmony and line. The second is fast and propulsive with a dancing major second figure used throughout especially in dialog between bass clarinet and trombone.  The work also explores passages free of meter to create a rich polyphony.

© Andrew Schultz, 1984.