Cells and Sanctuaries

Davies, Maxwell

Abstract

My starting point for Cells and Sanctuaries was that very common of things that we all experience – trying to remember a song, or just a melody, usually associated with a significant memory, and, all too frustratingly, not being able to get it quite right, as the memory over time has degraded and become diluted with other melodies, but, in the end, after not thinking about it, it suddenly comes back to us. Cells and Sanctuaries is a work that is literally trying to ‘remember’ its own starting point, and is therefore, in a sense, trapped, and looking for sanctuary in the place where the music is ultimately being harmonically driven to.

Structurally, the piece falls into two main sections – Part 1: 3 Diluted Dreams and Part 2: An almost forgotten song, remembered. Part 2 is the nucleus of the whole work, and is a song without words for orchestra whose harmonic language is totally diatonic, and has several significant characteristics that form the entirety of the material for Part 1 - these being: an overall upward surging across it’s whole span, that is interspersed with plateaux and ‘mini-descents’; the initial melodic shape of the solo cello melody, and subsequent developments of that long expansive melody; harmonic stasis, often due to a chord being formed gradually over a significant period of time, and an important textural component, florid, brilliant movement bubbling within that harmonic stasis, and the colouring of and the building of harmonies around single notes.

Part 1, therefore, is the start of the memory’s journey. The 1st movement is still and expansive, and its harmonic field (directly derived from Part 2) is drenched in dissonance and uncertainty. Fragments of material from Part 2 appear in various guises, and are echoed throughout the varied textures, at times suggesting a hint of focus, only to dissolve away and become something different. After several builds, there is a huge upward surge, led by an increasingly frenetic string chorale, and for the 1st time a version of a significant melody from Part 2 is played by unison horns, but it is ‘not quite right,’ and the music explodes into the second movement.

Part 1, Movement II is essentially a scherzo. It makes a necessary musical contrast from the slow tempo of the previous movement, and directly mirrors the structure of Part 2 (where two slow sections frame a central fast section). Harmonically, this movement is close to the 1st movement, but has fewer dissonances as the harmonic fields are always becoming less dissonant, and closer to the diatonicism of Part 2. Movement II falls into three main sections – all of which are upward surges. Here, material actually starts to develop and move into different directions, but these are soon swallowed up by forceful, overpowering tutti build ups. Once again, the movement ends with a variant of the opening melody of Part 2, as the texture gradually thins to mark the beginning of movement III.

The 3rd movement, whose direction is ‘Stilled,’ marks another necessary musical contrast. In terms of sonorities, it is close to the 1st movement, incorporating necessary moments of silence and relief. Here, brief solos are heard against an initial static background that again, try to ‘remember’ the melodies of Part 2, but end up embarking on their own their own direction. Gradually, movement is introduced into the harmonic stasis, initially by gently rocking flutes and clarinets, and later by recalling the floridity of the 1st movement. As the final upward surge begins, material from Part 2 cuts through the texture in the brass and percussion, and as the peak is reached, penetrating through the slight dissonance are once again the horns, with a perfectly formed melody from the ‘forgotten song,’ and the as the climax reaches its point of peak intensity, a Tam-Tam strike renders the orchestra silent, apart from a solitary B, the note which opens the work, and this marks the arrival of where the music has been journeying towards – the sanctuary, and relief, of Part 2.

Performance History
• 13/11/2007 Cells and Sanctuaries (2006) for orchestra; BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre de Ridder, Maida Vale Studios, London (spnm event)

• Other Type: Composition
• Publication Date: Nov 13, 2007
• Deposit Date: Nov 8, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 9, 2022
• Keywords: Composition, Music performance, Orchestra
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10129406
• Related Public URLs: https://soundcloud.com/maxcharlesdavies/cells-and-sanctuaries ; ; http://www.maxcharlesdavies.com/; ; https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3ZdqdVLsMqsvj8ZHptXN2ZT/about-the-orchestra; ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maida_Vale_Studios