Quetzalli

Notes

The title refers to the national bird of Guatemala, signifying ‘beautiful, precious feather’ in the Nahuatl language. Scored colourfully for trios of clarinets and strings with vibraphone and piano, it falls clearly into two sections: the first bright, rhetorical and discontinuous, the second (after a short linking piano cadenza) more linear and ‘goal-directed’. The goal in question is a coda in driving dotted rhythms, ending with a final squawk form the clarinet. I suppose each movement can be said to pay homage to two admired composers, Messiaen and Berio. It received its first performance at the Purcell Room in April 1996 by Lontano conducted by Odaline de la Martinez, who recorded it on Lorelt LNT138.