Commissioned by Betty Freeman for the 1995 Salzburg Festival, this work is scored for an ensemble of 24 players: 7 wind, 4 brass, harp, piano, 2 percussionists and 9 strings. The discrepancy in length and character of the three movements is intentional – two relatively short and light movements preceding a much longer and darker conclusion.
In the first Invention, mainly serene and luminous in atmosphere, a brief introduction leads to a sustained flugel-horn solo whose melodic curves create constantly transforming harmonic implications. The second Invention is fast, loud and rhythmic. A virtuoso cor anglais solo announces what appears to be a conventional triple metre; however, within a very brief time all manner of irregular figuration and unexpected tempo juxtapositions contort this metre beyond recognition. Halfway through, the texture launches into an energetic tutti; only at the very end is metrical regularity reinstated by an acrobatic clarinet solo. The final Invention mirrors the first in technical conception, but the tone is radically different. Antiphonal tuned gongs and bass drums surround a network of materials, which weave through the whole ensemble: slow bass octaves, floating consonant harmonies, rushing filigree scales. As these materials rotate across the structure in ever-changing combinations they encounter a variety of foreground melodic solos: inially a serpentine contra-bassoon, later a menacing euphonium and more fluid violins and violas. As the movement progresses, harmony and rhythm mutate into constantly new territory, but the heavy, bass dominated pulse which underpins the texture, remains remorselessly regular until the very end.
George Benjamin
