Chamber Concerto No. 1
(1962) Chamber Ensemble
Duration: 11 minutes
0111/1110/vn.va.vc
Commissioned by the University of Glasgow, McEwen Bequest

World Premiere:  26 April 1962, McEwen Memorial Concert, Glasgow
members of the Scottish National Orchestra / Thea Musgrave, conductor

Publisher:  Chester Music Ltd

Composer Note:

Chamber Concerto No. 1 -- unlike the more dramatic and cumulative chamber concertos No. 2 & No. 3 -- is a more lyrical work. The nine instruments are heard together in the opening chordal section and this idea (slightly varied) returns several times. Alternating with this are more lyrical and melodic episodes where different groupings of the instruments vary the texture.

Thea Musgrave has described her later chamber concertos, Nos. 2 and 3 as 'exploring the dramatic ideas in instrumental music', and as being in 'cumulative' forms. No. 1 is more 'static', and is shaped somewhat like a movement in a concerto grosso, its design supported by four ritornello-like tutti sections that are related in their chordal pattern, though they differ in dynamic shading. These are separated by three more contrapuntal episodes (the second of them in slow tempo) for various instrumental groups. The form can thus be described as A B A CA B A.

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