Raymond Deane
Embers
Duration: 8'
Instrumentation details:
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
Embers
Translation, reprints and more
Raymond Deane
Embers
Available digitally
Orchestration: für Streichquartett
Type: Dirigierpartitur
Sample pages
Work introduction
Embers was composed in 1973 for string quartet, in which form it was first performed in December of that year by an ad hoc ensemble. Six years later I made a version for string orchestra which was first performed in 1984 by the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra under the late Albert Rosen, and was subsequently presented at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. In 2008 I made a version for piano trio, commissioned by the Fidelio Trio, who premiered it at my portrait concert in London's Purcell Room in 2010. In its various versions, Embers is probably my most widely performed work.
While the title Embers was suggested by Samuel Beckett's enigmatic radio play of that name (1957), there is no programmatic relationship between the two works. The piece obsessively turns over musical fragments which seem to have some remote but uncertain origin, briefly rises to a climax, comes to rest in a modal violin tune, then takes its leave with a dominant seventh question mark…