Piccola Serenata
for strings, oboe, and clarinet
- year of composition
- instrumentation
- 0.1.1.0 ‑ 0.0.0.0 ‑ strings
- duration
- ca. 7'
About the work
Piccola Serenata is a 21st-century take on the type of pieces composed and performed in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, intended as light entertainment at social gatherings. Such pieces typically contained a variety of contrasting themes: as inspired by this style, Piccola Serenata contains many shifts in mood - some subtle, and some surprising. Melodies and harmonic language are played with in ways intended to evoke the sounds of the past in a modern setting, but with various elements designed to tickle the ear as the listener is led along a meandering musical path.
The initial ‘seed motif’ begins as a searching, sweeping call-and-response between violin and cello, over a rhythmically textured backdrop filled with growing urgency. As the motive continues to develop, it is at times almost at rest, only to be swept up again in various forms: comedic quirkiness gradually becoming surreal and unsettled; soulful meandering towards the temptation of repose; brooding attempts to find its way yet again on the twisting path. The first theme’s triumphant re-appearance leads to a shimmering, intense climax only to dissolve once more into motivic tendrils. A satisfying—although possibly unexpected—end to the excursion awaits…