Harrison Birtwistle- Harrison's Clocks (Score)

These pieces were inspired by the Sobel book Longitude, about the painfully prolonged gestation of John Harrison's sea clocks, now preserved at Greenwich; and the link with Harrison Birtwistle's shared name. There are five substantial pieces, each starting with a rush of notes down to the bottom of the keyboard. In Clock I irregular contrary motion and staccato figures are deliberately out of phase. Next a mechanical fantasy with an alarm bell. Clock III variously combines six figures in pairs. Clock IV introduces each of its four sections by repeating the opening signal of the whole work. The last is a toccata with reversed delays between the hands, ending, as each piece does, 'because the clock-spring has broken down', as explained in Stephen Pruslin's helpful notes. Pf: I-IV: Nicolas Hodges V- Joanna MacGregor