The Triple Goddess (Fine, Vivian)

Sheet Music

Scores

PDF typeset by Paul Hawkins
Peggy Karp (2012/1/19)

Publisher. Info. Vivian Fine Estate
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Report performances to Vivian Fine Estate
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Parts

PDF typeset by Paul Hawkins
Peggy Karp (2012/1/19)

PDF typeset by Paul Hawkins
Peggy Karp (2012/1/19)

PDF typeset by Paul Hawkins
Peggy Karp (2012/1/19)

Publisher. Info. Vivian Fine Estate
Copyright
Misc. Notes Request Licenses from ASCAP
Report performances to Vivian Fine Estate
Purchase
Javascript is required for this feature.

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General Information

Work Title The Triple Goddess
Alternative. Title
Composer Fine, Vivian
I-Catalogue NumberI-Cat. No. IVF 78
Movements/SectionsMov'ts/Sec's 3
  1. Passacaglia
  2. Cadenza
  3. Chorale
Year/Date of CompositionY/D of Comp. 1988
First Performance. 1989-04-22
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Sanders Theater
Harvard University Band, Thomas Everett, conductor
Average DurationAvg. Duration 8 1/2 minutes
Composer Time PeriodComp. Period Modern
Piece Style Modern
Instrumentation Concert band: piccolo, flutes (4), oboe, B-flat clarinets (3), bass clarinet, bassoon, B-flat trumpets (4), horns in F (4), tenor trombones (2), bass trombone, euphonium, tuba, alto sax, tenor sax,baritone sax, timpani, percussion
External Links Vivian Fine website

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Commissioned by the Harvard Wind Ensemble as part of Boston's Vivian Fine Appreciation week.


It was the first time Fine had written for band, and she used the full resources of the ensemble to compose a mythic tone poem. Feminine imagery prevails. The Triple-Goddess displays herself as Night, Order, and Justice. She lives in a cave with Eros, her son, whom she conceived when the Wind laid a silver egg in her womb. Rhea, her mother, attends her. Fine includes headings in the score indicating the action being portrayed.

Fine chose slowly moving passacaglia for the first section, using the low brass theme to portray Night. Each time the theme repeats, it is announced by the percussion: timpani, then chimes, cymbal, and so on. As the section progresses, the Wind is heard, then Eros is hatched from an egg and sets the universe in motion. This birth and creation take three attempts, and Fine repeats the same music but with different tempi: first an andante, then slower, and then twice the speed. Eros, who "was double-sexed and having four heads, sometimes roared like a lion or a bull, sometimes hissed like a serpent or bleated like a ram," is portrayed in a cadenza of sonic effects such as glissandi trombones and bleating woodwinds. In contrast to the comic Eros, Night ends with a tonal chorale representing the Goddess’s triadic nature, and Rhea is portrayed by the anvil that marks the chorale’s downbeats.

—Heidi Von Gunden, The Music of Vivian Fine, Scarecrow Press, 1999