Michael Jarrell

Offrande

As with Prisme (2001), Offrande for solo harp is taken from a concertante work for harp and string orchestra entitled Conversions* (1988), but is further distant from its origins. While the cadenza for solo harp, which occupied a central position in Conversions, is preserved in its entirety here, along with its mood markings of 'librement, fantasque', the other parts are freely adapted. In Offrande the harp uses a wide range of expression. The composer subjects it to a certain number of particular techniques (harmonies, glissandi with the tuning key, playing with nails, twanging the strings, and so on) that frequently add a percussive dimension. On the whole, however, the work makes use of the more typical characteristics of the instrument, such as repeated notes or tremolos, and certain arpeggios. The overall form of the piece is in the shape of a curve, starting from the note C and finishing on d', with a nod in the direction of a final reexposition of the initial elements. In between the music passes over a changing landscape that also gives off some subtle yet vital signals, such as the ascending call F-B in the 'cadenza' section. The notion of 'movement' is particularly important here as it seems to dominate the different components of the score. An example is the increasingly wide spacing and thereby the deployment of rests in the final phase, a remarkable ending after the steady flow of virtuose sections.

Pierre Michel, Translation: Mary Criswick extract from the booklet Solos (CD aeon)* This composition makes a 'very secretive' reference to the past, and more particularly to the two-voice canon Quaerendo invenietis in Bach's Musical Offering.