Intermezzo

Notes

This intermezzo is the first of Three Pieces for Piano, composed between 1974 and 1978, which comprise two intermezzi and a more substantial piece entitled Separations. It was composed during my second year at King’s College, Cambridge. It explores the harmonic relationship between the opening theme, which alternates between the notes F and D, and all twelve minor triads in ascending order, beginning with Eb minor. The resulting sets of up to five pitches create differing degrees of tension, until the music eventually reaches a sense of wistful repose on the notes of the D minor triad.

First performance: Susan Tomes, King’s College, Cambridge, 1975. First broadcast: Jonathan Middleton, BBC Radio 3, October 2018.

Recording on ASC Classical Series ASC CS CD1, Contemporary British Piano Music, released September 1997, with Jonathan Middleton, piano (Three Pieces for Piano).