Lachlan Skipworth | Piano Quartet No. 1 (score video)

Official score video for Lachlan Skipworth's Piano Quartet
Performed by Cygnus Arioso
Purchase the CD Lachlan Skipworth - Chamber Works here:
lachlanskipwor...
Purchase the score here:
www.australian...
Listen to the full recording:
Spotify: open.spotify.c...
Apple Music: / lachlan-skipworth-cham...
Follow Lachlan
Facebook - / lachlanskipworthmusic
Instagram - / lachlanskipworth
www.lachlanskipworth.com
Program noteThe passing of time has been measured and conceived in myriad ways throughout the rich histories and cultures of humanity. The ancient Greeks for example, used the word chronos for time in a strict linear sense and kairos to refer to those moments of indeterminate time in which it takes for an action to happen. Similarly, the old Japanese divided their days proportionally into six sections whose length varied in accordance with the seasons. Indigenous Australians utilise their time in a polychronic manner, meaning that multiple tasks can be ongoing simultaneously, placing importance more on human interaction than on following a strict schedule. My Piano Quartet is an exploration of these various concepts of time across three movements. The first evokes the idea of kairos and the unmeasured space between actions, as delicate piano figures and string glissandi intermittently emerge from pale sustained sonorities. The emergence of trills and melodic fragments introduces a certain forward momentum to bring the movement to more dramatic conclusion. The second movement begins immediately with a chromatic three-note figure in the high piano, winding around itself in the first use of chronos, or measured time in the work. This quaver figure is gradually enveloped in sounds and gestures from the strings, but is never contained to a regular rhythmic pattern. Soon the motif is passed to the lower strings and grows in energy until a short melodic burst brings us back to the original motif in unison across all four instruments. The final movement erupts as a serious of rough jeté sounds in a strict triple meter, which is immediately undermined by a rising piano figure that divides the bar into four, not three. Further subdivisions of six and even eight beats to a bar create a strange coalescence of polychronic times within a strict and calculated chronos. The work builds to a gripping melodic climax before winding slowly down and returning to the floating mood of the beginning. Commission detailsCommissioned for the Australia Piano Quartet by the Department of Culture and the Arts, Western Australia and the University of Technology Sydney.

[@lachlanskipworth]

I: 0:00
II: 4:16
III: 12:14

[@matthewlewiscomposer]

The unison line starting at measure 33 is so pretty

[@lachlanskipworth]

Thanks Matthew, it's such a culmination point for that whole first movement.

[@macanthony1108]

Absolutely adore this. As a first-year composition student at WAAPA, hearing the music local composers are writing is so inspiring. Also helps that my piano teacher recorded the piano part for your flute sonata 🤣

[@lachlanskipworth]

@macanthony1108, so glad you enjoy this. We're probably overdue to revive it in a Cygnus Arioso performance some time, as the last outing in Perth was in 2018 I think!

[@stueystuey1962]

Im not a musicologist but i do hear the sound world of the Japanese composers. I tend to lean more toward the radical serialists than the spectralists but i do like this.

[@lachlanskipworth]

Thanks Stuart, appreciate your thoughts!

[@SuonoReale]

This is incredibly profound. I wonder if the composer is familiar with the music of Toshio Hosokawa.

[@lachlanskipworth]

Indeed, I love Hosokawa’s music. In retrospect this work is an interesting meeting between his influence and what I was still striving to express from my years learning shakuhachi in Japan. There’s even a honkyoku quote in there somewhere…

[@jeryess88]

Discovering your music has been an absolute delight! the experience of both listening and delving into the score an exquisite pleasure. Where is it possible to read more about the performance instruction? I am very interested of your notation for the strings.

[@lachlanskipworth]

Thanks for your comment! My performance instructions are not particularly extensive- this is copied from the score:
Performance notes:


• Glissandi: avoid bow changes on arrival at the final pitch where possible. (This is sometimes indicated with slurs, but not always.)
• Vibrato: use only sparingly in the first movement, and predominantly at the highest point of a cresc. - dim. figure.
Abbreviations
• SP: sul pont.
• mSP: molto sul pont.
• ST: sul tasto
• flaut.: flautando
• jeté: gently allow the bow to ricochet a number of times and continue into a single sustained bow stroke.

[@jeryess88]

@@lachlanskipworth thank you I appreciate it. I the beginning oof the piece is really beautiful and cognitively astounding"

[@lachlanskipworth]

@jeryess88 I'm so glad you enjoyed it. My clarinet quintet is also up here, and eventually I'll upload my piano trio as well- those are from the same period.