The Rose Lake
General Info
Year: 1991-1993
Publisher: Schott Music
Duration: 00:25:00
Description
Michael Tippett’s final orchestral work, The Rose Lake, was inspired by Senegal’s Lake Retba – famed for transforming through vivid shades of pink under the midday-sun. The piece explores questions that preoccupied Michael Tippett throughout his career, entrancing the listener with sonorities and techniques of non-Western cultures, Roto-toms rhythms and shifting orchestral colours.
The compositional process of The Rose Lake was for Michael Tippett, then in his late 80s, quite a struggle. Not only did he suffer from poor eyesight, but exhaustion and depression also took their toll on the process. After battling for months with writing down the first third of the piece, Michael Tippett was finally left with no other choice, but to dictate the score to his editor and proofreader Michael Tippett, due to his ever increasing blindness. He was, however, able to pick up the pen again to write down the very last bars himself.
Scored for a large orchestra with a vast array of tuned percussion, one of the most distinct features of The Rose Lake is its extensive use of no less than 39 Roto-toms. In terms of form, The Rose Lake, subtitled as a song without words for orchestra, is built of blocks, or mosaics, based on rather varied musical materials.
There are five main sections, or songs, in the score separated by interlude-like passages. The large orchestra seldom comes together in full. Rather, Michael Tippett writes for multiple combinations of smaller instrumental groups to a dazzling effect. The song sections are more developed and interconnected, while the interludes appear static with the main focus on the different sonorities inherent in the vast instrumental resources employed.
To a certain effect, with its block-like structure, The Rose Lake bears certain superficial similarities to some pieces by Messiaen, namely Couleurs de la Cité Céleste (1963). Yet, on a deeper level, the two composers inhabit worlds of their own. There js that unique lyricism in The Rose Lake, which sets it apart from all other music, including most of Tippett’s other pieces.
The delicate contrapuntal textures, tricky rhythms and unconventional harmonies call for orchestral virtuosity from beginning to the end. Among the most demanding features of The Rose Lake are the soaring melodic lines scored for Roto-toms. Superbly played by David Jackson and Sam Walton, the Roto-tom ballet was a feast both visually and aurally.
Movement
I. Medium Fast
II. The Lake Begins to Sing
III. Fast
IV. The Lake Song Is Echoed from the Sky
V. Fast
VI. The Lake
VII. Medium Slow - Medium Fast
VIII. Medium Slow
IX. The Lake Song Leaves the Sky
X. Fast
XI. The Lake Sings Itself to Sleep
XII. Calm
World Premiere Details
Date: February 19, 1995
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Colin Davis
Instrumentation
Woodwinds
3 Flutes (3pic)
2 Oboes
English horn
2 Clarinets
2 Bassoons
Contrabass Bassoons
Brass
6 Horns
3 Trumpet
3 Trombone
1 Tuba
Percussion
Snare Drum
Bass Drum
Suspended Cymbals (Small & Large)
Castanets
Tam-tam(Small & Large)
Xylophone
Marimba
Vibraphone
Glockenspiel
Chimes
39 Roto-toms
large tuned gong
Strings
2 Harps
10 First Violins
10 Second Violins
6 Violas
6 Cellos
4 Double Bass