Composer: Anna Clyne (Born in London in 1980)

Work composed: 2021

World premiere: 2021 at the Edinburgh International Festival opening concert performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra

Instrumentation: solo string quintet (comprised of 2 violins, viola, cello, string bass), piccolo, flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, strings

PIVOT for String Quintet and Orchestra

English-born composer Anna Clyne is truly a trans-Atlantic composer. She spent her undergraduate years at the University of Edinburgh, (Scotland) and then completed
her Master’s degree in composition in New York City at the Manhattan School of Music, and currently lives in New York. Reaching nearly 100 works already composed in her 42 years, Clyne has been steadily commissioned, and, notably, she has been the composer-in-residence for ten orchestras around the world, from several in the US as well as the UK, Norway, Finland, Holland, and Australia. She’s been called by the New York Times as “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods.” Her works are imaginative and inventive, and without fail, engaging to listen to. One of her most enjoyable pieces so far is her 2021 work PIVOT for String Quintet and Orchestra.

PIVOT is composed as a virtual walk through Edinburgh, Scotland’s famous Fringe Festival, where buskers and stage groups and theatre troupes and folkways of all kind clamor for attention. The piece evokes a soundscape that’s continually changing, constantly pivoting to something different as one strolls through the Festival, evoking the liveliness and thrill of being there. It also pays homage to the over 200-year-old pub, The Royal Oak, which was formerly called PIVOT. When Clyne was attending University in Edinburgh, she often wandered into that storied pub in the “wee hours” to listen to great folk musicians and their music. And in that vein, PIVOT reimagines one of Scotland’s most beloved folk-fiddle tunes, the 18th Century “Flowers of Edinburgh.”

Strolling through a busy festival setting is a clever premise in which to write a piece of music, but Clyne also includes two additional clever musical twists. The first is her choice of instrumentation. Set apart from the rest of the string section of the orchestra is an separate string quintet. Comprised of 2 violins, a viola, a cello, and a String bass, it recalls the instrumentation of the great “Trout” Quintet, D. 667 (1819), by Schubert, and likely is sly homage to that great master. The separate quintet serves a fascinating function by creating a kind of three-dimensional sonic effect, sometimes as a reflection of the rest of the orchestral  strings, and sometimes as its own solo group, beckoning for the listener’s attention – much like you would expect from traipsing through a festival with live music all around you.

The second musical twist is that PIVOT isn’t merely a kaleidoscopic evolution of folk tunes. We never know what we’ll walk past next – sometimes it’s folk music, sometimes it’s tunes harkening back to even older times, sometimes it’s a classically infused tune that floats into our ears. A great example of this musical time-bending occurs at about one and- a-half minutes into the piece. While the first folk tune (“Flowers of Edinburgh”) carries on in its tap-dancing energy, it suddenly seems to diffuse into a new sound, as the orchestration rarefies down into the separate string quintet. A new tune then emerges, much statelier and played in an exotic and ancient sounding key. It’s as though ghosts have joined the Fringe Festival with their offerings of olden times. Clyne marks this section as “Haunted serenade.” Shortly after, the music suddenly begins to tumble upward in a mash of notes, like many invisible hands running higher and higher on all the string’s fingerboards – all higgledy-piggledy in a colossal glissando, and which Clyne directs to be played as “snakey.” It’s imaginatively spooky, and fun, and then, because we are moving along the festival streets, everything pivots back to jaunty energy, folkiness and frolic.

PIVOT continues along in this delightful way – songs and sounds merging into new songs and sounds – but Clyne keeps everything overall celebratory and frisky. As for moments of festive color, listen for what sound like random accordion squeezes, and car horns in the distance. The work then revs
itself up to a brisk and joyfully raucous ending, just as though we’ve walked through the streets of a festival brimming with energy and deep musical history.