Quintet No. 1
Michael Hopkins
About this work:
This is a four movement work for the "trout" instrumentation. My approach in writing this piece was to write (mostly) tonal music, while exploring non-traditional means of expressing tonal relationships. I use primarily tertian, quartal, and quintal harmonies in this piece. My melodic material is simple but undergoes continuous rhythmic and harmonic transformation.
The first movement opens with quintal chords in the piano. All 12 pitches of the chromatic scale are presented in the first four bars, and the tonality remains somewhat ambiguous. The viola presents the wandering 4-bar melody that will become the basis for all the melodic material presented in the first and fourth movements. The first movement is based on an ABA form.
The opening 8 bars of the second movement were actually the first music I composed in this Quintet. The movement opens with a harmonic progression set over a descending chromatic bass line. The melody presented in the piano in the first 8 bars of the second movement provides the material for almost all of the melodic material heard in the second and third movements. After composing the first half of the Adagio second movement, I composed the third movement as a fast Scherzo that alternates between 3/4 and 2/4 meter. The third movement functions as a companion to the second movement and was completed very quickly, but completion of the second movement was to be the last part of the Quintet to be composed. The second movement follows a modified Rondo type of form, with the opening material returning three times, each time with increasing rhythmic energy.
The fourth movement returns to the quintal harmony, but is set in 2/4 meter, and features pentatonic melodic passages, alternating with the return of the melodies from the first, second and third movements.
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:26:30
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Violin, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Double bass