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O Rio
Score
978-0-19-362099-5
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Paperback
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25 July 1991
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A colourful, evocative piece, O Rio was inspired by a Brazilian tribal myth concerning the jakui. These were powerful spirits in the form of flutes living at the bottom of a deep river. This is essentially a fantasy, cast in a loose, extravagant arch form. Forces or CategoryFull orchestraDuration16
minutesDifficultyDifficultOrchestration3(3rd+picc).3(3rd+ca).2.b.cl.3(3rd+cbn)-4.3.3.1-4perc.timp- cel.pno-hp-strProgramme NotesO Rio - a river, deeply flowing - powerful, constant undertow - whirlpools eddying, diverting (momentarily), rejoining the current -
Jakui - Brazilian flute-spirits, underwater - their music is potent (to capture them is to master it) - three underwater flutes, barely glimpsed in the river -
Three trumpets - earthy alter egos - hot, tropical energy - dancing,
fiesta! - a habanera rhythm - a Cuban song - bright, brassy shadows -
A central line; barely-heard melody - tracing, insinuating itself - current - finally, flung out, alone; a delta - O Rio
The above is an embarrassing (but earnest) attempt to describe the 'poetic' content of O Rio. It's a piece that had many beginnings: a trumpet concerto - perhaps even a double trumpet concerto; an extrovert ballet, inspired by the Latin dance music I'd been listening to in large quantities; a study in long, melodic lines. In the end, it's all of these things to some degree. O Rio is really a 'fantasy', both in terms of its structure - a loose, extravagant arch form - and in terms of its imagery. What really fixed its shape and flavour for me was the discovery of a myth,
created by certain North Brazilian tribes, concerning the jakui. These were powerful spirits, in the form of flutes, living at the bottom of a river. To capture and learn to play them, as man does in the myth, was to harness their power - the power of creation, the power to turn night into day.
The myth manifests itself most obviously in the long, central portion of O Rio. This features three flutes, whose music is characterised by long, sinuous lines, the use of a very close three-part canon and a surrounding aurora of soft, bell-like sounds (vibraphone, celeste, piano, harp etc); these latter two features are intended to create the 'sub-aquatic' environment of the flutes by suggestions of echo and reverberation. In this and many other parts of the work, the flutes' musical
vocabulary is mirrored by three trumpets whose earthy, brilliant dispositions tend to associate them with gestures of a more visceral, dance-like nature.
In fact, dance' is an important ingredient in the other central image of O Rio - that of the river itself. The dark, threatening pulsations of the opening; the circular melodic patterns; the motoric, syncopated accompaniments all contribute to a sense of flow' - erratic, diversionary at times, but ultimately unstoppable. Perhaps even more fundamental to this idea is the presence of long, melodic lines which erupt, full-blown, only occasionally (most obviously at the very end - at the work's delta). This melodic 'current' governs the progress of the work in all respects, keeping it under tight (if unseen') reign.
O Rio
represents a kind of synthesis of many abiding compositional concerns: my experimenting with various ways of filtering popular or vernacular styles; the employment of a motoric continuum that articulates rapid, parallel patterns; and the exploration of various approaches to rhythmic unison. In attempting to utilise all these elements it is a rather wild, fanciful piece, and despite the high degree of local organisation it ultimately represents an intuitive and extravagant response to its own imagery.
O Rio was composed for the 1991 Promenade Concert season and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It was written in 1990, during a long happy summer spent mainly in Brighton, but partly in Spencer, Massachusetts, beside a large, deep, beautiful lake.
© Martin
Butler
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press
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Martin Butler (b.1960) Martin Butler was born in Romsey, England, in 1960 and studied at the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music. In 1983 he received a Fulbright Award for study at Princeton University, USA, where he was resident until 1987. From 1998-1999 Martin was Composer-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in the United States. He is currently Professor of Music at the University of Sussex.
Butler's works are widely performed and broadcast both in the UK and abroad.More on Martin Butler from the British Music Information Centre
Martin Butler at the University of Sussex
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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