Réflexions for ensemble (2004) | Compositions

Instrumentation: 2(I=picc2,afl,II=picc1).1.corA.2(I=Ebcl,II=bcl,dbcl).2(II=dbn)-2.2.2.0-perc(3):I=4bongos/4wdbls/BD/gong/sm susp.cym/lg SD/xylorimba; II=4tom-t/tam-t/stones/sm SD/2log dr/sm tgl/lg susp.cym/vib/glsp; III=4tpl.bl/sm cowbell/almglocke/med SD/hammer/guiro/claves/med susp.cym-harp-pft-2.1.2.2.1
Commission: Commissioned by Ensemble Intercontemporain and the City de la musique
Dedication: Pour le quatre-vingtième anniversaire de Pierre [Boulez], avec mille souhaits amitié affection et admiration
Buy Score: Hendon Music (Boosey & Hawkes)
Manuscripts: Paul Sacher Stiftung

Premiere: Feb 15, 2005/ Ensemble Intercontemporain / Pierre Boulez/ Cité de la Musique, Paris

Conceived as an eightieth-birthday present for the composer’s longstanding friend and supporter Pierre Boulez, this colorful and often humorous piece is a swirl of reflections on six notes that spell out the dedicatee’s surname. The score is also a homage to the Ensemble InterContemporain, which was to give the first performance (as also of the composer’s Penthode and his concertos for oboe and clarinet). Accordingly, the music is a sparkling sequence of virtuoso solos and duets, including a comic turn for contrabass clarinet in the extreme low register, bright discourses for flutes and trumpets, and a cello thrust in which, Carter has observed, “the cello plays a wrong note, B natural, which the orchestra doesn’t like, so then it plays the right note, which is B flat.”

– Paul Griffiths