Triptych
- Instrumentation
- Cello, Piano
- Composed
- 2004
- Duration
- 20'
- Publisher
- Canadian Music Centre (unpublished, printed by CMC), RSN 53003, call no. MI 3213 P665tr; score 32 pp. and part 16 pp.
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About this piece
Deirdre Piper, an English-born organist, pianist and composer who taught at Carleton University in Ottawa, completed Triptych for cello and piano in 2004. Its Lento finale is the oldest music in the set: subtitled '11 September 2001' and dated Ottawa, December 2001, it was deposited at the Canadian Music Centre as a separate piece, For 11th September, in 2002, while the second movement is dated August 2004. The first movement, marked 'Slowly, freely; in an exploratory fashion', opens with the cello alone, switching between pizzicato and arco; the second, 'Fast, with driving energy', is a perpetual motion of sixteenth notes against sharp accented chords in the piano; the finale ends quietly on a single pizzicato. Piper's note says the three pieces form a connected cycle to be played in order, though each may also be performed on its own.
Technical overview
The first movement moves freely among bass, tenor and treble clefs, with quick pizzicato and arco changes, pizzicato chords, fermatas and a slow close on sustained harmonics. The second is a 4/4 perpetual motion of accented sixteenths, much of it on repeated notes, that needs stamina and clean string crossings. The finale is a slow lament alternating 2/4 and 3/4, mostly in bass clef, with triplets and a short sul ponticello passage in chords.