Clockwerk (1991)

Clockwerk was written in 1991 when Maria Grenfell was a student at the University of Canterbury.

The concept for the piece comes from Bela Bartók's Music for strings, percussion and celesta and Bach's Brandenburg Concertos.

Clockwerk uses a lydian-dominant scale and is built with a fugal construction where the opening musical subject enters one section at a time, beginning with the first violins. It works its way through many keys and gradually transforms into a new subject in triple meter, ending with an accelerated flourish.

Instrumentation: string orchestra (violins 1, 2, violas, cellos, basses)

Duration: ca. 9 minutes