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From the bench of shadow

Details

  • 12
  • Saxophone Quartet

Score Excerpts

Sound Samples

  • Quasar Saxophone Quartet

Program Notes

EL SUR

Desde uno de tus patios haber mirado
las antiguas estrellas,
desde el banco de
la sombra haber mirado
esas luces dispersas
que mi ignorancia no ha aprendido a nombrar
ni a ordenar en contelaciones,
haber sentido el circulo del agua
en el secreto aljibe,
el olor del jazmin y la madreselva,
el silencio del pájaro dormido,
el arco del zanguán, la hemedad
–esas cosas, acaso, son el poema.

–Jorge Luis Borges (b. 24 August 1899) (de la edición 1969 de Fervor de Buenos Aires)

THE SOUTH

To have watched from one of your patios
the ancient stars,
from the bench of shadow to have watched
those scattered lights
that my ignorance has learned no names for
nor their places in constellations,
to have heard the note of water
in the cistern,
known the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle,
the silence of the sleeping bird,
the arch of the entrance, the damp
–these things perhaps are the poem.

Translation by William S. Merwin

From the bench of shadow was commissioned by the Quasar Saxophone Quartet with financial assistance from the Canada Council.

String Quartet No. 3

Details

  • 28
  • String Quartet

Score Excerpts

Sound Samples

Program Notes

String Quartet No. 3 has had somewhat of a long genesis, with the first sketches dating back to April of 2004. The work that you will hear tonight has gone through many and varied incarnations over the intervening four and a half years to reach it’s current four-movement form. Most of the material from the original sketches has found its way into the 3rd movement. The overall structure of the piece, in broad general terms, is that of two outer fast movements and two inner slow ones. The second movement is fugal in nature and in the third a very simple canonic idea frames a group of lyrical and textural episodes. The first movement focuses on the development two contrasting ideas stated in the opening section. The final movement is somewhat obliquely influenced by Schumann’s quartets, which I was listening to a great deal while composing this work, and more directly by Shostakovich. I would like to thank the Manitoba Arts Council for their financial support during the composition of this work.

The Molinari Quartet gave the world premiere of String Quartet No. 3 on January 23, 2009, in la Chapelle historique de bon Pasteur in Montreal.

Reviews

Matthews, M: Quartets 2+3; Miniatures

Written by Mark Lehman from American Record Guide on November 1, 2015

PARMA - STRING QUARTETS Matthews - ARG Nov-Dec 2015 copy

STRING QUARTETS Matthews - ARG Nov-Dec 2015

Michael Matthews: Quatours à cordes

Written by Éric Champagne from La Scena Musicale on September 1, 2015

Quartet review

String Quartets of Michael Matthews

Written by Holly Harris from Winnipeg Free Press on August 19, 2015

Winnipeg Free Press_Michael Matthews_8_2015

El Viento Helado

Details

  • 13
  • Woodwind Quintet

Score Excerpts

Program Notes

El Viento Helado was written for the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet; the piece was composed in Winnipeg and Berlin.

The title is taken from a poem by Antonio Machado (1875-1939)

LXXIX

Desnuda está la tierra,
y el alma aúlla al horizonte pálido
como loba famélica. ¿Qué buscas,
poeta, en el ocaso?

Amargo caminar, porque el camino
pesa en el corazòn. ¡El viento helado,
y la noche que llega, y la amargura
de la distancia! … En el camino blanco

algunos yertos árboles negrean;
en los montes lejanos
hay oro y sangre… El sol muriò… ¿Qué buscas,
poeta, en el ocaso?

Poem LXXIX

The land is naked,
And the soul howls at the pale horizon
Like a hungry she-wolf. Poet,
What are you searching in the sunset?

Bitter to walk, because the road
Weighs heavy on the heart. The wind is frozen,
The night has arrived, and the bitterness
Of the distance!…On the white road

Some green trees are turning black;
In the distant mountains
There is gold and blood…The sun has died. Poet,
What are you searching in the sunset.

translated by Tanzan Kopra

 

Einklang

Details

  • 12
  • Two Pianos

Score Excerpts

Program Notes

For about the past ten years I have been composing, on and off, a number of pieces for solo piano, variously named preludes and bagatelles. This piece, Einklang, came out of that project, and started life in 2006 when I thought of expanding the collection to include a prelude for two pianos. I worked on the piece on and off for a while, until it became clear that it had grown beyond an entity that I felt could reasonably be described as either a prelude or bagatelle. I gave it a working title of “Sonata for Two Pianos”, but that really never felt like more than a placeholder as I continued to work on the piece.

What attracted me in particular to the medium of two pianos was the myriad of possible sonorities and contrapuntal textures that were simply not available on a single instrument. In particular I came to focus during the compositional process on exploring rhythmic unisons between the two instruments, and on some of the possible chords and lines that could be achieved with that technique. The work’s title Einklang, meaning variously unison, accord, concord, harmony, sympathy, grew out of this approach.

The Skin of Night

Details

  • 15
  • Soprano/Alto Saxophones and Piano

Recordings

Score Excerpts

Program Notes

Commissioned by the Harrington/Loewen Duo
Allen Harrington, Saxophones
Laura Loewen, Piano

with financial assistance from the
Canada Council for the Arts

World Premiere:

July 8 , 2006
International Saxophone Congress, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Allen Harrington, saxophones; Laura Loewen, piano

Trios

Details

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