Ground IV
2011
4 clarinets
9 min
• World premiere: 5/08/2011, Valley Performing
• Commissioned by the Quatuor Vendôme.
• Publisher: Gérard Billaudot.
• CD "Quatuor Vendôme" (Indésens Inde 044).
In the “Ground” series, which consists so far of six pieces, the principle of the passacaglia is employed throughout, although each time in a slightly different way. For instance, Ground III, for four celli, is based on a fairly constant motif which is joined by a series of contrasting variations, whereas Ground IV is a free piece where the passacaglia motif emerges as the result of a transformation process.
Already present melodically in the intensely expressive first part, it is in the dance that it develops its rhythmical shape within an often stubborn and erratic rhythmic cycle.
Only after the second episode does the ground bass appear, in the form of a duo, opening up to a succession of frenetic tempo variations. In the final episode of this progressive piece the expressive and rhythmic motifs of the first two periods return gradually, carried away by the very logic and seething of the passacaglia.
Thierry Escaich
Translation: Eileen-Rose McFadden
- Aria (piano)
- Cantus I (cello)
- Cantus II (harp)
- Cantus III (oboe)
- City Lights (clarinet or saxophone)
- Étude flash-back (piano)
- Étude jazz (piano)
- Études baroques (piano)
- Études impressionnistes (piano)
- Jeux de doubles (piano)
- Les Litanies de l'ombre (piano)
- Lutte (saxophone)
- Nun komm (violin)
- Prélude et Fugue (accordion)
- Vers les cimes
- Après l’Aurore
- Capriccios (clarinet/accordion)
- Cérémonial
- Choral’s Dream
- Comme l’écho d’une fantaisie
- Dopo la Folia
- Ground I
- Ground II
- Ground III
- Ground IV
- Ground V
- Ground VI
- Introït à l’Office des ténèbres
- Le Bal
- Lettres mêlées
- Psalmodie à l’Office des ténèbres
- Scènes de bal
- Scènes d’enfant au crépuscule
- Short Stories
- Sopra la Folia
- Spring’s Dance
- Tango virtuoso (arr. for clarinets)
- Tango virtuoso
- Tanz-Fantasie trp & organ
- Tanz-Fantasie trp & piano
- Trio américain (“Suppliques”)
- Trois Intermezzi
- Variations gothiques
- Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
- Concerto for Guitar and String Orchestra
- Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
- Concerto for Organ No. 1
- Concerto for Organ No. 2
- Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
- Concerto for Violin, Oboe and Orchestra
- Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
- Élégie
- Fantaisie concertante
- La Nuit des Chants (Concerto for viola)
- Le Chant des ténèbres (clar. & strings)
- Le Chant des ténèbres (solo sax & 12 sax)
- Miroir d’ombres
- Quatre Visages du temps (Concerto for Organ No. 3)
- Résurgences
- Scherzo fantasque