 In the Baroque concerto grosso, the term ripieno referred to the full orchestra as opposed to the concertino or group of soloists. I chose the word as the title of this large-scale work
without a soloist, as so many of my earlier orchestral compositions had been
of a concertante nature, and I wished to avoid the compromising terms symphony or concerto
for orchestra. However, given its etymological proximity to replenish, the
title evokes the possibility of an aesthetic of plenitude as against one of
impoverishment; of dialectic, drama and perspective as opposed to the flat
surface of post-modernism. Can this be done without lapsing into nostalgia? Ripieno sketches
four possible answers - which may themselves be questions.
Part I begins with a hushes trio for flutes, adumbrating much of the pitch-material
on which the work will be based. The entry of lower strings touches a chord
that will recur at key points of each movement and that I nick-named the
golden chord, although I have never explored whether its occurrences correspond
in any way to the mathematical golden section (which I have used consciously
in certain other works). The music speeds up and becomes hectic before yielding
to a hushed passage alternating celesta and solo strings. This in turn yields
to a recurrence of the hectic material which brings the movement to a forceful
close.
Part II is a kind of "Intermezzo" whose ingredients include fragments
of Klangfarbenmelodie, staccato chords in the low registers, arpeggios
in woodwind and pitches percussion, and a good deal of elaborate layering of
the string ensemble.
Part III is a frenetic, fragmented "Scherzo" in which pitched percussion
and piano - a kind of "gamelan from hell" - function almost as a concertino against
the rest of the orchestra. The pitch-structure is characterised by gapped scales
and superimposed major and minor thirds, thus anticipating Samara.
Part IV - the longest movement - is a kind of Passacaglia in which
each section is centred on one of 14 pitches which are stated at the outset
by celesta and harp. The apparent clarity of this scheme is progressively muddied
and elements from Part I infiltrate the flow. Somewhere in the back of my mind
were W. B. Yeats's lines "what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
/ Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" However, at the end of Ripieno the
beast is transformed into shimmering light and disappears into the ether.
The first sketches for Ripieno date from November 1998. Part III,
the last to be composed, was sketched in September 1999. The work uses a normal
large orchestra - triple woodwind, eleven brass, percussion (without timpani),
pianoforte/celesta, harp and strings. The work is dedicated to Colman Pearce,
who conducted the premiere on 14 April 2000 and who has tirelessly promoted
the cause of new Irish music. 
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