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Piano score for sale. The basset clarinet, violin and cello parts can be downloaded without additional cost via the following links:
Basset clarinet
Violin
Cello

Abbreviations (PDF)

Publisher

Boosey & Hawkes

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.
World Premiere
20/11/2009
St James's Piccadilly, London
Mercury Quartet
Composer's Notes

I was drawn to the dark, explosive energy of Sylvia Plath’s poem
Ariel
and used the text as a framework to build an emotional and textural chronology onto which to pin the music. To me the words suggested highly charged, tumultuous, coruscating textures, with an almost violent emotional intensity. However, at the heart of the piece lies a very simple yet tender motif, which, after a moment of stillness from the depths of the piano, forms the musical basis of the second half, faster and more driven in character. I use the energetic impulse of the line ‘Something else Hauls me through air’ as a means through which to increase the tempo and put the ‘Ariel motif’ through a series of transformations until the piece reaches its eventual climax.

Ariel is dedicated to the Mercury Quartet.

© Mark Simpson, 2023

Recommended Recording
cd_cover

Mercury Quartet
NMC D225

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