fragments for cello and piano

Gordon Downie

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Duo

1990

4 min.

Cello

Piano

Program Notes: The majority of fragments for cello and piano was composed in 1990. The later revision and extension in 2005 involved developing and re-characterizing certain material. Whilst the earlier material informally deployed a collection of contrasting pitch class sets, the new material is wholly serial, comprising a series whose constituent segments are extracted from the content of the earlier sets. By this technique it is intended to maintain consistency between the former and latter material, a process that is assisted by the inherently fragmented nature of the work’s form, a feature that furnishes the work’s title.
Recording Notes: fragments received its premiere in Cardiff, UK, in 1991, performed by Margaret Reid, cello, and Derek Clarke, piano. The work was subsequently performed by John Senter, cello, and Ian Pace, piano, at a concert recorded in Studio 1, Broadcasting House, Cardiff, in 2008, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Hear and Now.