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Text: R. Kipling.
Introduction, Stanza 1, Intermedium I - Timpani, Stanza 2, Intermedium II - Trombone, Stanza 3, Intermedium III - Piano, Stanza 4, Parodia.
A peculiarity of this piece is that it contains two settings of the same poem, an idea taken from Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans Maitre. There, however, Boulez uses a second setting to amplify his original response, whereas here the intention is to offer an alternative response. The following examples should help to clarify this:
In the first setting (A), the sergeant is often reassuring (since he himself is dreading what he’s got to watch; in the Parodia, the second setting (B), he is hard and irritable.
(A) is like an operatic scena, which may be regarded as a dramatization of the actual event; (B) is set in the manner of the blood-thirsty ballad.
(A) often ignores the metrical structure of the poem; (B) makes use of the poem’s powerful and monotonous beat.
The overall formal structure is a kind of back-to-front version of Renaissance parody technique. The Parody Mass of this period was based on a pre-existing song, usually to be found stretched out in long notes in the tenor part and elsewhere influencing the texture. The Parodia, here, is the concluding ballad, which derives its material from everything heard previously (including the instrumental solos). The title ‘Intermedium’ is used for instrumental sections, rather than ‘Interlude’, since the latter suggests change rather than continuance of mood. This was an idea taken from the 17th-century composer Schütz.