The Duchess of Malfi (brass ensemble)

The Duchess of Malfi (2026)

4 tpt, hn, 3 t tbn, 1 b tbn, timp (t-tam)

Duration: c. 16 minutes

Originally written for Moving Being Theatre Company’s production of John Webster’s Jacobean revenge tragedy, performed at St Stephen’s Theatre Space, Cardiff, in May and June 1990, this music was conceived in close relation to the theatrical space and the dramatic action.

In the original performances, the musicians played from memory, a choice that helped shape both the style and the content of the music. Built around passacaglias, canons and ostinati (repeated musical phrases), the score enabled the musicians to perform processionals in different parts of the former church, allowing the music to move through the space as an integral part of the drama.

The music draws inspiration from two Italian composers working in the same period as Webster: Giovanni Gabrieli, renowned for his antiphonal brass music for St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, and Claudio Monteverdi, celebrated for his operas and other works for the stage. Their music provides a historical and stylistic point of reference for the interplay of instrumental colour, repetition and spatial effect.

For this version, the music has been re-scored for brass ensemble of ten players and timpani.

1. Intonazioni / Lighting the Time to Come

2. A Treasury of Secrets

3. Near Some Great Hill

4. Calculating Aspects of the Astrological Houses

5. Murder Shrieks Out

6. Canzon a Tre

7. Diamonds Cut Diamonds