Trumpets from 1975 sets the titular poem by Georg Trakl for soprano and three clarinets. Oliver Knussen called the 4-minute piece “small but explosive”. His highly-compressed single sonata movement mirrors the “brutally-juxtaposed” imagery of Trakl’s poetry in, whose mood is captured in the final line: “Banners of scarlet, laughter, madness, trumpets.” Trumpets was composed for Alan Hacker and Matrix ensemble.

 

“…beneath the strident surface there is a harmonic intelligence of rare cogency.”
The New Statesman (Brian Northcott), March 1975

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