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Symphony No. 2
Conductor's score and parts on hire
978-0-19-366594-1
13 September 2001
Price: Available on request
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for full orchestra Forces or CategoryFull orchestraDuration27 minutesDifficultyDifficultOrchestration2 fl, afl (+picc), 2 ob, ca, 2 cl, bcl (+Ebcl), 2 bn, cbn, 4 hn, 3 tpt, 3 tbn, tba, timp, 2 perc (glock, mba, vib, guiro, 2 sus cym, sandblk, 2 w blk, BD, bongos, 3 tom, tam), hp, pn (+cel), strProgramme
NotesMy Second Symphony was written in 1998-99, originally to a Millennium commission from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and first performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2002.
This symphony is in three main movement-sections, with an introduction and coda, that play without a break and last about thirty minutes. It has its origin in two of my then recently completed works, Fast Colours and As Shadows to the Sun. The former is a scherzo for chamber ensemble whose musical material found its way back into early workings of the symphony and seemed to need different treatment and further development; the latter is an a capella choral setting of sonnets and madrigals by Michelangelo. Some music from this piece is used in the
symphony but perhaps more importantly the texts yielded an image that describes the process of the work and dominates, in particular, its later stages. To paraphrase Michelangelo: within a block of marble is the finished sculpture, just as within the body is the soul. The release of the figure from the stone demands chipping and hammering, and thus destruction as an indispensable part of creation.
The introduction is marked Luminous but with shadows. This music forms the goal of the whole piece and its luminosity has to be rediscovered and fully achieved only in the coda. Meanwhile the shadowy element prevails and leads into the first movement-section. This is a modified sonata structure involving high contrast and combination of mood and tempo from the darkly turbulent and
dramatic to the tenderly lyrical, differences that the rest of the symphony seeks to accommodate if not resolve. In thematic terms a twisting chromatic figure first heard on tuba and contrabassoon, later varied by horns, then again by trumpets, is set against an important three-note phrase (rising 4th, falling 2nd) heard variously and in many different contexts, though initially within the tuba/bassoon line.
The second movement-section is an orchestral version of the main sections of Fast Colours and in symphonic terms forms a scherzo as well as further developing earlier ideas. A number of episodes are framed by a short tutti marked Brilliant, dazzling. From this emerges the slow third (and final) movement-section; here the Michelangelo image becomes central. Under the hammer and
chisel of the rest of the orchestra the strings unfold long, singing lines that in their increasing intensity and elaboration eventually lead to the rediscovery of the music from the introduction, now fully formed and revealed, with a climactic final statement of the symphonys main thematic figures.
© Anthony Powers 2002
Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press
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Anthony Powers (b.1953) Born in London in 1953, Anthony Powers studied at Oxford, in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and at York with David Blake and Bernard Rands. He taught for two years at Dartington College of Arts before being appointed Composer-in-Residence to Southern Arts. Since then he has moved to Herefordshire where he continues to divide his time between composing and teaching, currently at Cardiff University, where he has been Professor of composition since 2004.
Powers's music is characterized by strong architectonic frameworks that support a language of poetic intensity and magical sonorities. His music often takes its inspiration from the tension between different states, be they physical properties, landscapes, seasons or emotions.Anthony Powers at Cardiff University
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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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