Programme Note
Airstream comprises three short ‘album’ pieces commissioned by the clarinettist Peryn Clement-Evans, with funds made available from the Arts Council of Wales, for first performance at the Wrexham Festival in May 1997. It was composed during February and March 1997.
The first piece ‘Pull up if I pull up’ as the title suggests is, like my six piano piece ‘Never Odd or Even’, a palindrome (something which is the same backwards as it is forwards). Indeed it shares with ‘Never Odd or Even’ the same harmonic structure. The harmony moves to a central point and then is exactly reversed. The clarinet part meanwhile has a single span. It is also reversed exactly from the middle but, in this instance, only the the rhythm is treated palindromically, the choice of notes being free. This strict procedure is applied to material which is essentially playful and light.
The second, ‘Silver Wing’ was inspired by the second of the two Faery Songs of Keats. In 1995 I visited Rome and wrote a piece for the Keats bicentenary celebrations. ‘Silver Wing’ was developed from sketches for a second work which was never completed. A simple descending bass of four notes is used throughout the piece with pan-diatonic harmony above. As this romantic song progresses its range, register and dynamic intensity increase.
The third piece entitled ‘Airstream’ has two associations for me, the first and more prosaic relating to the playing of the clarinet. The second is of those shiny silver American mobile homes. From these sources this encore-type piece draws its brief, frivolous beauty.
Airstream is recorded by Peryn Clement Evans with Harvey Davies (piano) on the Cyfoes label CYF01CD