envoi: concerto for cello and orchestra
DESCRIPTION
By Paul Paccione (2006), Program NoteTRANSCRIPT
Envoi
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
Paul Paccione
(2006)
ENVOI (2006), Concerto for Cello and Orchestra By Paul Paccione
“Envoi” (or envoy) is a sending on the way. In a poem, the “envoi” is a short fixed final
stanza that serves as a summary or dedication. The “envoi” is the final return to the subject, a conclusive summing up, a clever sending off. In this sense, the composition “Envoi” represents a summing up of the lyric expressive musical language I have been
exploring in my more recent music.
“Envoi,” for cello and orchestra, is in four movements that are played without interruption. Movement I is a rhapsody for solo cello and orchestra. Movement II
is in three sections - the first and third sections are a canonic march, the middle section is a chorale for solo cello and woodwinds. Movement III is a slowly unfolding lyrical aria
for solo cello, that is punctuated by the woodwinds, against a more sustained string background. Movement IV combines previously heard musical material, from
Movements I and II, with new musical material in an animated minimalist dance.
There are four movements: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. The title was drawn from Rudyard Kipling’s poem L’Envoi, which begins:
There's a whisper down the field where the year has shot her yield
And the ricks stand gray to the sun, Singing:—'Over then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover
And your English summer 's done.' Instrumentation
Solo Cello 2 Flutes
Oboe English Horn 2 Bb Clarinets
2 Bassoons 2 Horns in F Percussion
(Timpani, Triangle, Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells) Piano
Violin I Violin II
Viola Violoncello Double Bass
Published by Frog Peak Music, Box 1052, Lebanon, New Hampshire 03766;
www.frogpeak.org