Harlequin-Philip Sparke

Harlequin-Philip Sparke.

Philip Sparke,

Sparke was born in London and studied composition, trumpet, and conducting at the Royal College of Music where he earned his ARCM.  While at RCM, Sparke formed a brass band among the students and wrote many pieces for it.  Some of his first compositions include Concert Prelude for brass band and Gaudium for wind band.  As interest in his music grew the amount of commissions he wrote.  His first major commission was for the Centennial Brass Band Championships in New Zealand, the piece is called The Land of the Long White Cloud.  He has composed pieces for championships all over the world, and has won the EBU New Music for Band Competition three times.  In the U.S. Sparke was commissioned by the United States Air Force Academy Band to write Dance Movements which won the prestigious Sudler Prize in 1997.  Sparke is also an active adjudicator and conductor however in May 2000, he became a full time composer and started his own music publishing company Anglo Music Press.

Harlequin

This piece takes its inspiration from the happy and sad masks which symbolize the Commedia de'll Arte (Which features Harlequin as one if its main characters) and comprises 2 "movements"  which are more commonly thought of as sections since they are typically played without pause.


A Harlequin is a stock character in french plays.  The primary aspect was his physical agility.  He is generally depicted as stupid and gluttonous, he was very nimble and performed the sort of acrobatics the audience expected to see.  He would never perform a simple action when the addition of cartwheels, somersaults, or flips would spice up the movement.  The character was otherwise very elastic as long as they met this criteria.  The actor may change his behavior to suit style, personal preferences, or the particular scenario being performed.

The first section of the piece is a slow melodic section with some range difficulties spending most of the time in the mid to upper tessitura.  The main thing with the first section is to make it as musical and interesting as possible, a lot of performances I've heard can get pretty boring.  So adding some rubato, extra dynamics, and appropriate ornaments are just some possibilities.  The second section is where the character of a harlequin is evident.  It is a rather fast section with a lot of 16th note passages.  This section is even more demanding than the first because there are a couple of runs that stay around a high B-flat for about 5 bars, and then comes back later in the piece.  The most difficult sections are towards the end.  The first being the descending third pattern about 8 minutes into the piece.  It requires extremely fast flexibility, and that part is one of the most important in the entire piece because it really simulates the idea of laughter.  The next tricky section is the ostinato-like arpeggiated 16th notes that come right after the descending thirds motive.  In my opinion, that part isn't as difficult as the descending thirds simply because it is only 2 arpeggios that are repeated for about 30 bars.  When all is said and done the last section is actually very repetitive and if you can get the technique down for the different patterns then there shouldn't be too much of a problem.  Just be sure to take it at a tempo you're comfortable with....not David Childs tempo.

Here are a couple YouTube videos of the piece.



^ with David Childs and Fanfare Band accompaniment







 
^With Robert Voss and Brass Band accompaniment.