Bride, teeming with sweet to the Bridegroom
Recordings
- Adam Swayne (UH Recordings, 2010) Listen
- John Tilbury (BMIC, 1986) Listen
- George W. Welch ensemble (BMIC, 1988) Listen
Notes
Bride, teeming with sweet to the Bridegroom was composed in 1981. It takes two fragments of Sappho ("Bride, teeming with" and "sweet to the Bridegroom") and their corresponding settings in Granville Banctock's song-cycle 'Sappho' (1906). The two fragments, without the vocal part, are fairly similar and of nearly the same duration, but one is pitched a semitone above the other. The piece then repeats each fragment, using a gradual note substitution process to introduce the second phrase into the silences between statements of the first phrase, and vice-versa. As well as Sappho, the piece refers to the Bride and Bridegroom in the transformative processes of alchemy and by extension to Marcel Duchamp.
Previous published editions have contained an inaudible error, something of which I was aware but allowed to pass in a spirit of Duchampian indifference. This edition corrects the error and may be regarded as the authoritative edition.
Performance notes
A version of this piece was performed a number of times by the ensemble 'George W. Welch' during the mid to late 1980s, with a clarinet taking the top line, a tuba the bass, and a string trio the middle voices. It could work equally well for clarinet quintet or for any other suitable combination of instruments.