The Sun was Chasing Venus

Instrumentation

Cello
1
Viola
2
Violin
2

Additional Information

string quintet

2012

Duration 15’

Instrumentation 2 violins, 2 violas, cello

First Performance 3 April 2014, Savannah Music Festival, Savannah, Georgia, US; The Dover Quartet with Daniel Lee (viola)

Commissioned by Daniel Hope and Savannah Music Festival

http://composersedition.com/charlotte-bray-the-sun-was-chasing-venus

Driven with frenetic energy, The Sun was Chasing Venus is through-composed, vividly moving between contrasting sections. Featuring the violas in an expressive dialogue is a slower, hazy episode which gives way to a violin solo with sparse, rhythmic accompaniment. Brisk music returns in a playful, excitable section, before a cadenza-like cello solo.

The piece takes its shape from the concept of ascending, the music always rising. The title, an abstract description of the work, represents the idea of a game of pursuit; musical lines chasing each other, out of which comes a sense of journey.

Tags

Details

string quintet
Year
Publisher
Composers Edition

Savannah,
United States

Minutes
15

Recordings