Program notes

Silken Weave for trumpet and piano, opus 47a (1993)

This piece for trumpet and piano was written in 1993 in response to a commission from the University of Newcastle and the Head of Brass there, John Kellaway, to write a work for advanced performers in Australian music schools. Silken Weave is one of a number of pieces based on an earlier song, Silk. That piece was a setting of a short Chinese erotic poem for two sopranos, bass clarinet and vibes and has an exuberant and contrapuntal mood.

The harmonic progressions and modal writing in the song have provided the basis for a number of subsequent pieces including Silk Canons (for sextet), Silken Weave, and a duet scene from Act 1 of Going Into Shadows. In Silken Weave the interlocking of the trumpet and piano parts provides the ‘weave’ of the title. The trumpet part is open and sustained with broad rising lines and some agile passages.

© Andrew Schultz, 1993.