Kevin Volans: Concerto for Piano and Wind
Instruments
My prime concerto when writing this piece was to allow the
piano as much resonance as possible. This led me to adopt a simplified harmonic language,
with plenty of superimposed major and minor triads, giving the piece a somewhat early
twentieth-century sound.
There are also, however, two quite African characteristics
in the piece. I decided to treat the orchestra like a vast panpipe ensemble, where each
instrument is treated as an equal (and frequently opposite) partner of its neighbour. The
instruments are often interlocked - one part complementing the other in several different
ways - the simplest example being when one instrument is silent while the other plays, and
they play alternate single notes. The piano and orchestra are also often interlocked: the
piano part is on the whole meaningless without the orchestral part and vice versa. There
are virtually no solos for the orchestral instruments ad few for the piano.
Secondly, the whole piece is constructed around the ration
of 4:3. It was pointed out to me (after the fact) that this is very common rhythm in
African. There are passages in which the piano plays a pattern in fours against the
orchestra in threes. Later in the piece there are 'walking' passages where the orchestra
plays four against three and the piano plays three against four in their respective parts,
the one sounding a quaver later than the other. Most of the consecutive tempos have a 4:3
relationship (with slight adjustments). I was surprised when the piece was finished to
find it was one of my most conventional works to date.
I wrote the Piano Concerto in South Africa and Ireland. The
piece is dedicated to Barbara Bailey, who generously lent me her room facing due east over
the sea, where I worked each day from sunrise.
© Kevin Volans