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a scat quodlibet inspired by Bach; commissioned
by the Swingle Singers and first performed in the Concertgebouw,
Amsterdam in July 2000; duration: c.8'30"
[longer programme note:] BCAD was commissioned for the Bach
anniversary celebrations in the year 2000 - so the title is partly
a deliberate misreading of Bach's name, and partly a reference to
the greater anniversary celebrated around the same time. On the
small scale the initials 'B.C.' and 'A.D.' make a simple and infinitely
malleable four-note melodic figure; while the 'Prelude & Fugue'
structure of the piece was influenced by the strange idea of dividing
time into 'before' and 'after' an event, represented here by the
midnight chimes of the New Year. The beginning and end of the piece
are the gates into this (distant?) world and carry the most literal
quotations of Bach's melody from Wachet auf (Sleepers,
wake!). But that is not the only old music to be heard: in particular,
the 'BCAD' figure expands into Croft's St. Anne hymn tune
of 1708 - firstly because of its resemblance to the main subject
of the famous Fugue in E flat from Part III of Bach's Clavier-Übung,
and secondly because of the words associated with it, "O God, our
hope in ages past, Our hope for years to come...". And as this is
a quodlibet (like the end of the Goldberg Variations), there
are several other tunes in there, mostly from the composer's own
1992 opera Anna's Rapid Eye Movement, not to mention Bach's
name itself.
[shorter programme note:] BCAD is a four-note motif (not
unlike BACH); BC & AD are the Western calendar suffixes used
to distinguish between what happened before the birth of Christ
and what has happened since. In this scat quodlibet/vocal concerto
there is a moment when everything stops - the first half (the prelude)
leads expectantly up to that point and the second half (more fugal
than not) unfolds joyfully out of it. Among other musical references,
strains of Bach's Wachet auf can be heard at the beginning and the
end. |
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