Chamber Archives - Claire Cope Music

Onwards, upwards

For soprano sax and piano

Programme note

‘Onwards, upwards’ is a direct reaction to receiving negative judgment and rejection as a musician, and is about dealing with this idea of having your musical voice questioned with resilience and determination. At first, a light and rhythmic motif that is delicate and vulnerable is explored by the saxophone and piano as a single unit, as the fragments bounce off one another. As the piece progresses, a more definite and robust melodic idea becomes maintained by the saxophone, and the central section allows this voice to soar ever higher as the melody rises through a series of ‘upward’ harmonic shifts. This eventually breaks away into a more contemplative and reflective moment, before the original, more disjointed idea returns and the motif becomes thinner and more fragmented until the end.

Clouds

For Piano Trio (9″)

Programme note

“Depression is also smaller than you. Always, it is smaller than you, even when it feels vast. It operates within you, you do not operate within it. It may be a dark cloud passing across the sky but – if that is the metaphor – you are the sky. You were there before it. And the cloud can’t exist without the sky, but the sky can exist without the cloud.” Matt Haig.

‘Clouds’ is constructed within the traditional ‘arch-shape’ mould; a singular movement that comprises several sections of varying moods and tempos. However, it is also a somewhat personal, and human, journey through a depressed state of mind. Opening with a dark and intense harmonic sequence by way of a gently undulating piano motif, joined later by the pleading and expressive voices of the cello and violin, at first the sky is dark; the clouds are thick, vast, heavy and suffocating. As the piece progresses, there is further melodic development and increasing rhythmic interest as the clouds roll past and life continues to move forwards.

This eventually gives away to a more energetic, pulsing and almost triumphant theme, articulated first through heavy octave motifs from the piano against accompanying pizzicato movement from the strings. But this energy is ‘false’ energy and gradually, as this theme builds, there are more frequent interjections of the first, pleading cantabile theme, constantly shifting through various harmonies. Eventually, this builds to a climactic breaking point with the opening theme becoming more fragmented in the strings. However, instead of building to further darkness, here the clouds finally lift and there is a brief moment of tranquillity, peace and stillness as blue skies are finally in view, and there is a new weightless energy. Finally, a more major tonality takes hold here with gently undulating triplet figures in the piano part, beneath a simple and tender melody in the cello and violin parts.
This moment of repose is brief, however, and soon the dark clouds begin to drift across the sky once more. There is a return to the second major theme of the piece which, instead of building this time into something more energetic, eventually fragments and condenses into more uneasy harmony and a twisting duet between the violin and cello. Finally, we return once more to the heaviness of the very opening as the first, gently moving piano theme begins again, and the cello and violin present their melancholic melodies with some further harmonic development, before a final, more silent interpretation of the opening.

Lament

for Violin and Piano (6”40)

Programme note:

This piece is an emotional response to the reports and images of the bombing of a Mariupol maternity hospital during the Ukraine/Russian war in March 2022, and the devastating impact of war on innocent new life.

The image of an injured, heavily pregnant woman on a stretcher following the attack, clutching her bloodied abdomen, and the report of her and her unborn child’s death later, confirmed to the world the brutality of Putin’s invasion and served as a stark reminder of the long-lasting scarring of human conflict on our children.

In this piece, I have attempted to explore the conflict between violence and the serenity of new life. What should be a time of great peace, hopefulness, joy and stability is suddenly rocked by trauma, bleakness, desolation and great uncertainty.

A plaintive, lullaby-like melody becomes frequently unsteadied by more menacing and threatening harmony and rhythmic unevenness. The tension between the two mounts, and remains unresolved, in darkness. In the way in which a mother’s love and commitment to protection will endure the most difficult circumstances, this musical idea endures, but suffers, and is haunted by the disturbance of a new reality to the end.

Trapped

For Saxophone Quartet (8”30)

Programme note:

The idea for ‘Trapped’ emerged during the third national lockdown in the UK during the Coronavirus pandemic, which occurred during January and March 2021. Less about the idea of being ‘trapped’ in isolation, which was a common feeling during the first lockdowns, this is more a reflection of those feelings of frustration and anxiety in which individual voices were unheard and ignored, whilst the systems around them remained unstable, chaotic and disruptive.

A constant driving rhythm, fluctuating between 4 and 7 time, hints at this chaotic urgency, whilst a simpler melody reflects those individual voices trying to be heard above the disruption.

The central section of the piece is a calmer exploration of sound, with a more pleading and contemplative melodic line that interweaves between the four instruments, before arriving in a sonorous chorale where all four voices move together in rich harmony.

Gradually, fragments of the opening rhythmic motif begin to disrupt the calm, and we are once more thrust into the driving and unsettled character of the opening, before, finally, elements of all sections are brought together to end in an agitated and fraught finale.

*world premiere given by the Apollo Saxophone Quartet at the International Anthony Burgess Centre, Manchester on 5th November 2022

Motherness Suite

For String Quartet (14”)

I The Moment

II The Little Seed Grows

III Fear, and Love

Programme note:

The ‘Motherness Suite’ is an intimate portrait of a journey into motherhood; an observation, and sometimes a celebration, of the new and very emotional path which new parents walk, and the intensity with which some of these new emotions can overwhelm.

‘The Moment’ is an emotive photograph of the point in time in which a new life enters the world. A moment incomparable to any other, this piece tries to envelop the listener in sound and in an intense harmonic landscape, constantly shifting from uneasy, to joyous and all-consuming, just as this moment completely overcomes those in its presence.

‘The Little Seed Grows’ is a playful and often jubilant rhythmic dance that never stops, capturing the endless growth, change and constant upheaval through a constantly moving pizzicato train, and many harmonic twists and turns. There is a poignancy in the melody to the way in which time forever moves forwards, and this ‘little seed’ will never be so little again.

‘Fear, and Love’ is a tender but sorrowful portrait of a mother’s love and the way in which this love so intensely connects to a constant fear of loss. Sometimes this fear overcomes, sometimes it is kept at bay. For some it has become a reality, and this piece is dedicated to all the mothers who have suffered this loss.

Photo Credit: Ingrid Timmerman