sir harrison birtwistle
page three

I’d like to ask you some questions about Tragœdia, which is also on our program. The movements refer to classical drama.

They are the formal ingredients of early drama.  

Could you comment on the role of theater, or a narrative, in your works?

Never, there is never a narrative in any of my works. It’s all formalism. I never have a narrative.

The thing about Tragœdia was that it was a very self-conscious attempt to find a formalism that didn’t have anything to do with classical procedure. And I chose the wind quintet and the string quartet—you see, the woodwind quintet is the opposite of the string quartet. In the woodwind quintet, you have five diverse instruments, and in the string quartet you have a family. See, what you must do—I heard it recently, and they did it incorrectly—you have to separate the two groups on stage with the harp in the middle. And in the wind quintet, the horn must sit next to the harp; the cello must sit on the other side of the harp, because they have very specific functions within the piece. If you have enough space on stage, it is best if all the musicians are situated in a big arc or half-circle.  

I am unfamiliar with your work before Tragœdia.  

Well, there’s not much. Is that little piece your doing, Précis, is that before Tragœdia?  

I believe Précis was written in 1960. Tragœdia was 1965, wasn’t it?  

Don’t ask me.  

Can you say a few words about Précis?

I wrote it for a friend, Ogden.

I’ve just written some pieces for piano, I’m going to record them tomorrow. They were done in New York. They are real barnstormers, they’re called Harrison’s Clocks. They’re fiendishly difficult, virtuoso pieces.

No, I don’t know his music very well at all. I’ve liked what I’ve heard.

The way Silbury begins, on that same note, is the same way I’ve begun hundreds of pieces, for no reason at all.