Composer Institute: Daniel Bradshaw, Chaconne

Dan Bradshaw's Chaconne indicates as much with its material as with its title that it is a piece interested in the past.  The path it takes through reminiscence, however, delivers it somewhere brand new.  Bradshaw talks about wanting to explore dualities, the past and and the future both coming into focus in his Chaconne.  The piece is built in highly individualized sections, though the dividing lines are not conspicuous.  Its metamorphosis, its modernization, is gradual and completely natural.

Dense, nostalgic string lines intensify and gradually open up to the brass exchanging splashy chords that seem to melt into downward pitch bends.  Bass drum and suspended cymbal rolls announce the arrival of surging, intense activity for the full orchestra, which dissolves into chromatic lines for the bass clarinet and bassoon.  This new material is joined by chirping flutes as it moves into the low strings.  Eventually the whole piece is filtered out into simple rhythmic activity: col legno work in the strings and hammering percussion drawing the piece to a close.

Bradshaw's gripping use of orchestral forte-pianos in a climactic melodic passage is an innovative arrival point.  The composer seems to wring out from the orchestra an assertion that yes, this is still a viable musical vessel for which composers can write effectively and imaginatively.