String Ensemble,String Trio - Level 3 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.958494
Composed by Joseph Dillon Ford. 20th Century,Christian,Contemporary. Score and parts. 5 pages. David Warin Solomons2 #3858851. Published by David Warin Solomons2 (A0.958494).
An extremely concise, intensely expressive three-movement work of approximately six minutes' duration based on Ford's Chromatic-One technique, which enables each instrument to "sing" actual texts
in a tonal dialect of the English language. The entire composition is a nonsectarian poetic recitation of selected biblical passages whose close juxtaposition gives rise to some surprising paradoxes.
Due to the unusually tight integration of parts, individual players should read from the complete score.
Although of no more than moderate overall difficulty, the score requires great dynamic subtlety and control, and the fluent execution of numerous long sustained notes and highly disjunct melodies.
Largo molto sostenuto [3/1, No specific key, M]
The text "God is love" (I John 4:18) is recited homorhythmically by all three instruments, with a brief solo on the word "is" for violin. These three words, the 3/1 meter signature, and
pervasive triadic harmony convey a traditional Trinitarian symbolism in a movement meant to evoke the mystical essence of historical Christianity.
Andante alighieri [4/4, No specific key, M+]
"Love the Lord thy God"; "Fear the Lord thy God"; "There is no fear in love." These excerpts from Deuteronomy 6: 5,13, and I John 4:18 seem to give rise to a conflicted psychological state:
How can one both love and fear God (Old Testament) if there is no fear in love (New Testament)? This paradox is argued in complex triple counterpoint,
wherein each voice takes up each statement in turn, with no two voices reciting the same text at the same time. The punning tempo indication-- "Andante alighieri"--, devilishly abundant tritones, bumptious accents and syncopations, miscellaneous alarums and excursions, and mischievous allusions to the dance betray a certain dark,
infernal humor that arises in spite of--or even because of--the seeming (con)textual contradiction.
Largo in extremis [4/4, No specific key, M]
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) These startling, profoundly disturbing words are delivered with extraordinary poignancy in a tellingly brief finale, which literally disintegrates as "forsaken me" is stated in the lowest register of the cello. Thus, the Trio ends on a note of almost ineffable despair
that could not contrast more with the luminous vision of the first movement and the chthonic contradictions of the second.
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