'Inscription-Transformation' for solo violin and orchestra, duration c.13.5 minutes, and 'Inscrizione (derivata)' for violin and piano, duration c.6.5 minutes.
- Submitting institution
-
Royal College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 10
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2018
- URL
-
https://www.cecilianmusic.com/order-music/kenneth-hesketh
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Composing works that take as their starting points shared principal materials presents an opportunity to reshape the musical space of one work through the derivations and deviations of another. The process is quite distinct from arranging, where order, colour, and intent are preserved as, for example, in the ‘creative re-compositions’ of Berio, or the expansive transformations of Vivaldi and other composers by JS Bach. Indicated by the qualifier derivata (a subtitle added to works of mine in this genre), narratives are reordered or abbreviated, new material inserted, and settings altered both timbrally and harmonically. The result enables the listener to experience alternate perspectives on established material, ultimately shifting perception and meaning between the related works. Inscription-Transformation, for violin and orchestra, is a memorial for my grandmother, and my former teacher, Henri Dutilleux. The Foyle-Stsura commission for violin and piano provided a conduit to a new expression of remembrance (and more intimate grieving space). The contours, shapes and structures of the orchestral version are forced into shorter and more intense structural routes, remoulding and recasting it narratively. Inscrizione (derivata) bleaches the colour palette and flattens the contrapuntal density of the original, transferring the orchestral field of depth to the homogeneity of the piano. Works in this ‘derivata’ genre are typically driven by external demands (an imposed new duration or instrumental colouring) and intuitive responses as the original undergoes transformation. The recasting of proportion as ideas are twisted, removed, or subsumed, creates a related model through various attenuations of the original. Continuous self-appraisal during this process ensures that the final version has its own individual sense of wholeness as a related ‘otherness’ is established. Both works performed and recorded on commercial labels (UK and Dutch), are available on Spotify and have been broadcast on radio stations in Europe and the USA.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -