Caught in Treetops

Last updated March 18, 2019

Caught in Treetops is a concerto for solo violin and chamber ensemble by the British composer Charlotte Bray. The work was commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Sound and Music. It was first performed on 14 November 2010 at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham by the violinist Alexandra Wood and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group under conductor Oliver Knussen. The piece is dedicated to the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.^[1]^[2]

A concerto is a musical composition generally composed of three movements, in which, usually, one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band. It is accepted that its characteristics and definition have changed over time. In the 17th century, sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos, as reflected by J. S. Bach's usage of the title "concerto" for many of the works that we know as cantatas.

The violin, sometimes known as a fiddle, is a wooden string instrument in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and highest-pitched instrument in the family in regular use. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino piccolo and the kit violin, but these are virtually unused. The violin typically has four strings tuned in perfect fifths, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow across its strings, though it can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow.

Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.

Composition

Caught in Treetops has a duration of roughly 16 minutes and is composed in two numbered movements. The piece was inspired by the poems "A Match with the Moon" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and "The Moon Sails Out" by Federico García Lorca, which Bray described as her "central muse." The opening cadenza was inspired by the saxophonist Sonny Rollins's "Autumn Nocturne." Much of the composition was developed from a solo violin piece Bray had previously written for Wood.^[1]^[3]

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena".

A unit of a larger work that may stand by itself as a complete composition. Such divisions are usually self-contained. Most often the sequence of movements is arranged fast-slow-fast or in some other order that provides contrast.

Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was a British poet, illustrator, painter and translator, and a member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca, known as Federico García Lorca, was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a solo violin and a chamber ensemble comprising a flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, harp, piano, viola, and cello.^[1]

The Western concert flute is a transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, flute player, or (rarely) fluter.

Oboes belong to the classification of double reed woodwind instruments. Oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A soprano oboe measures roughly 65 cm long, with metal keys, a conical bore and a flared bell. Sound is produced by blowing into the reed at a sufficient air pressure, causing it to vibrate with the air column. The distinctive tone is versatile and has been described as "bright". When the word oboe is used alone, it is generally taken to mean the treble instrument rather than other instruments of the family, such as the bass oboe, the cor anglais, or oboe d'amore

The clarinet is a musical-instrument family belonging to the group known as the woodwind instruments. It has a single-reed mouthpiece, a straight, cylindrical tube with an almost cylindrical bore, and a flared bell. A person who plays a clarinet is called a clarinetist.

Reception

Reviewing the world premiere, Stephen Walsh of The Arts Desk called the music "intricate and self-absorbed, sonorities like birdsong in the upper branches, seldom coming to the ground but finely heard and very cleverly scored for a dozen instruments."^[2] Ivan Hewett of The Daily Telegraph similarly lauded, "Charlotte Bray’s light-footed mini-violin concerto Caught in Treetops seized the image of the moon in Dante Gabriel Rossetti sonnet."^[4] Igor Toronyi-Lalic of The Arts Desk called the work "intriguing" and wrote:

The Arts Desk (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news and other content related to music, theatre, television, films and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of traditional and web-based publications.

<i>The Daily Telegraph</i> British daily broadsheet newspaper

The Daily Telegraph, commonly referred to simply as The Telegraph, is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as Daily Telegraph & Courier.

An obsessive violin line attempts to bounce its way out of its predicament through arpeggio runs to the G string. When the orchestra joins the outstanding soloist Alexandra Wood, primitive, André Jolivet-like harmonies creep into earshot and drag the work into a sultry slow section. Her orchestration was rather tasty. Her shifting evocations were cleanly and interestingly explored. I'd be very interested to hear the work again.^[5]

Richard Whitehouse of Gramophone praised the "powerful concertante writing" of the piece and lauded the "tensile cadenza which duly casts its aura over the respectively capricious and meditative movements."^[6]

<i>Gramophone</i> (magazine) UK monthly magazine published in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings

Gramophone is a magazine published monthly in London devoted to classical music, particularly to reviews of recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie. It was acquired by Haymarket in 1999. In 2013 the Mark Allen Group became the publisher.

Related Research Articles

The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

Sir Simon Denis Rattle is a British conductor.

Stuart Oliver Knussen was a British composer and conductor.

Thomas Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor.

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos in history. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.

Julian Anderson is a British composer and teacher of composition.

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) is a British chamber ensemble based in Birmingham, England specialising in the performance of new and contemporary music. BCMG performs regularly at the CBSO Centre and Symphony Hall in Birmingham, tours nationally and worldwide and has appeared several times at the Proms in London.

Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki is a Finnish conductor and cellist. She is the daughter of Pirkko Liisa Vainio and the marine scientist Pentti Mälkki.

Tevot is a one-movement symphony for orchestra by the British composer Thomas Adès. The work was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall. The world premiere was given by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Simon Rattle at the Berliner Philharmonie on February 21, 2007. The United States premiere was given by the same ensemble at Carnegie Hall on November 14, 2007.

Charlotte Bray is a British composer.

Alexandra Wood is a violinist from Cookham, England. She began playing at 3 years old, gaining 140 marks for her grade VIII Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music examination at the age of 10. She gave her first concerto performance at 13, joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in the same year which she went on to lead in her mid teens.

Radio Rewrite is a 2012 work for instrumental ensemble by American composer Steve Reich, inspired by two songs by British rock band Radiohead: "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and "Everything in Its Right Place". The piece represents the first time that Reich has reworked material from western pop/rock music. It has five movements, alternating fast and slow, and is scored for clarinet, flute, two violins, viola, cello, two vibraphones, two pianos and electric bass. The work premiered in London, UK in 2013, performed by the London Sinfonietta, to a generally positive reception. Much attention focused on the Radiohead material, with some reviewers praising how completely it is integrated, while others question whether Radiohead's style is suited to Reich's work. Alarm Will Sound made the first recording of the piece for an album of the same name released on Nonesuch Records in 2014.

Sinfini Music was a classical music website containing written features and reviews, news, animations, cartoons, quizzes and filmed sessions. The site was owned by Universal Music Group but claimed to be editorially independent, covering music and releases from all record labels, artists and venues.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla is a Lithuanian conductor. She is currently music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) in England.

Sunset Strip is an orchestral composition in three movements by the American composer Michael Daugherty. The piece was composed in 1999 and premiered January 7, 2000 at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with conductor Hugh Wolff leading the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

The Violin Concerto is a concerto for violin and orchestra in two movements by the American composer Christopher Rouse. The work was commissioned for violinist Cho-Liang Lin by the Aspen Music Festival and School and funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. It was completed August 18, 1991 and is dedicated to Cho-Liang Lin.

At the Speed of Stillness is an orchestral composition in one movement by the British composer Charlotte Bray. The work was commissioned by The Proms for the conductor Sir Mark Elder and the Aldeburgh World Orchestra. It was first performed July 29, 2012 at the Proms by the Aldeburgh World Orchestra under Sir Elder. The piece is dedicated to the British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Fire Burning in Snow is a composition for mezzo-soprano solo and chamber ensemble by the British composer Charlotte Bray. The work was commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group with the support of individual donors in memory of the arts administrator Jack Phipps. It was first performed on June 18, 2013 at the Aldeburgh Festival by mezzo-soprano Lucy Schaufer and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. The piece is set to three poems by Nicki Jackowska. Bray dedicated the composition to Jackowska and to the memory of the composer Jonathan Harvey.

Black Rainbow is an orchestral composition in two movements by the British composer Charlotte Bray. The work was commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and was first performed in Birmingham on February 23, 2014 by the CBSO Youth Orchestra under conductor Jac van Steen.

The Sun Was Chasing Venus is a composition for string quintet by the British composer Charlotte Bray. The work was commissioned by the violinist Daniel Hope and the Savannah Music Festival. It was first performed at the Savannah Music Festival on April 3, 2014 by the Dover Quartet and violist Daniel Lee.

References

1 2 3 Bray, Charlotte (2010). Caught in Treetops: Program Note. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
1 2 Walsh, Stephen (November 15, 2010). "Turnage 50th birthday, CBSO Centre, Birmingham: Essex-boy composer in middle age is master of movement, Stravinsky and jazz". The Arts Desk . Retrieved August 4, 2015.
↑ "Birmingham Contemporary Music Group line up family concerts". Birmingham Post . April 1, 2010. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
↑ Hewett, Ivan (June 28, 2011). "London Sinfonietta/CBSO, Aldeburgh Festival, review". The Daily Telegraph . Telegraph Media Group . Retrieved August 4, 2015.
↑ Toronyi-Lalic, Igor (June 27, 2011). "Colin Currie, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, CBSO, BCMG, Oliver Knussen, Aldeburgh Festival". The Arts Desk . Retrieved August 4, 2015.
↑ Whitehouse, Richard (January 2015). "BRAY At the Speed of Stillness. Caught in Treetops". Gramophone . Retrieved August 4, 2015.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Score-1] 1 2 3 Bray, Charlotte (2010). Caught in Treetops: Program Note. Retrieved August 4, 2015.

[Arts_Desk-2] 1 2 Walsh, Stephen (November 15, 2010). "Turnage 50th birthday, CBSO Centre, Birmingham: Essex-boy composer in middle age is master of movement, Stravinsky and jazz". The Arts Desk . Retrieved August 4, 2015.

[3] "Birmingham Contemporary Music Group line up family concerts". Birmingham Post . April 1, 2010. Retrieved August 4, 2015.

[4] Hewett, Ivan (June 28, 2011). "London Sinfonietta/CBSO, Aldeburgh Festival, review". The Daily Telegraph . Telegraph Media Group . Retrieved August 4, 2015.

[5] Toronyi-Lalic, Igor (June 27, 2011). "Colin Currie, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, CBSO, BCMG, Oliver Knussen, Aldeburgh Festival". The Arts Desk . Retrieved August 4, 2015.

[6] Whitehouse, Richard (January 2015). "BRAY At the Speed of Stillness. Caught in Treetops". Gramophone . Retrieved August 4, 2015.