Dithyramb 2001
Duration
3'20
Scoring
solo piano
First performance
Iwan Llewelyn-Jones
Description
Dithyramb was written for Iwan Llewelyn-Jones to whom it is dedicated. Its thematic material is derived form a song by the 14th century composer Guillaume de Machaut, but there is no stylistic connection with early music. The piece is resolutely neo-Classical in style with some jazz inflections. After the song is quoted conventionally, but assertively a more uninhibited and frenetic development suggests the rather wild nature of the original Greek dance, the dithyramb, which was a hymn to Bacchus, god of wine and revelry. The progress is unremittingly wild and nervously-charged until interrupted at the close by a short slow coda. Here the original theme is recalled in a sweetly romantic manner before a final tumultuous cadence figure.
Recording
Iwan Llewelyn-Jones (piano) Portreadau Cymreig/Welsh Portraits, SAIN Records 2001
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