''Caught in Treetops'' is a

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

for solo violin and chamber ensemble by the British composer

Charlotte Bray Charlotte Bray (born 1982) is a British composer. She was championed by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London Sinfonietta and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been performed by many notable condu ...

. The work was commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Sound and Music. It was first performed on 14 November 2010 at the

CBSO Centre The CBSO Centre is the administrative home and rehearsal centre of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Choruses (City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Youth Chorus and City of Birmin ...

, Birmingham by the violinist Alexandra Wood and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group under conductor Oliver Knussen. The piece is dedicated to the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Bray, Charlotte (2010)
Caught in Treetops: Program Note
Retrieved August 4, 2015.

Composition

''Caught in Treetops'' has a duration of roughly 16 minutes and is composed in two numbered movements. The piece was inspired by the poems "A Match with the Moon" by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and "The Moon Sails Out" by Federico García Lorca, which Bray described as her "central muse." The opening

cadenza In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...

was inspired by the saxophonist

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a ...

's "Autumn Nocturne." Much of the composition was developed from a solo violin piece Bray had previously written for Wood.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a solo violin and a chamber ensemble comprising a

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

, oboe,

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

, trumpet, trombone, percussion,

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

, piano, viola, and cello.

Reception

Reviewing the world premiere, Stephen Walsh of ''

The Arts Desk ''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of tradition ...

'' called the music "intricate and self-absorbed, sonorities like birdsong in the upper branches, seldom coming to the ground but finely heard and very cleverly scored for a dozen instruments." Ivan Hewett of '' The Daily Telegraph'' similarly lauded, "Charlotte Bray’s light-footed mini-violin concerto ''Caught in Treetops'' seized the image of the moon in Dante Gabriel Rossetti sonnet." Igor Toronyi-Lalic of ''The Arts Desk'' called the work "intriguing" and wrote: Richard Whitehouse of ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' praised the "powerful concertante writing" of the piece and lauded the "tensile cadenza which duly casts its aura over the respectively capricious and meditative movements."

References

{{italic title Compositions by Charlotte Bray 2010 compositions Violin concertos Chamber music compositions