Three Explorations for solo baritone, winds and brass

Year
2010 - 2011
Duration
10'
Category
Voice and Ensemble

Instrumentation: 1(=picc).2afl(I=fl, II=bfl).1.2bcl(1=cl, II=dbcl).0-0.3.ttrbn.tenor-bass trbn.btrbn.0
Dedication: Henri Dutilleux
Buy Score: Hendon Music (Boosey & Hawkes)
Manuscripts: Paul Sacher Stiftung
Text Author: T.S. Eliot (English)
Songs: See below

	Title	Instrumentation
1.	The River	tutti
2.	Time and the Bell	b-bar, fl, 2afl, cl, Bcl, Cbcl
3.	The Fire and the Rose	tutti

Premiere: Dec 12, 2011/ Evan Hughes, baritone / AXIOM Ensemble / Jeffrey Milarsky/ Alice Tully Hall, New York, NY

Throughout my life I have been a great admirer of T.S. Eliot’s poetry and criticism. So when I decided to set some of his work I chose his late poems and parts of his Four Quartets.

The texts being meditative I decided to use winds and brass to accompany the bass baritone. I remembered a work of similar character and instrumentation by the 16th century composer Heinrich Schütz which impressed me greatly. The work was composed in the fall of 2010.

– Elliott Carter