Five short movements for trumpet, piano, violin, viola and cello — Op. 47
Music by Mark Goddard
A new edition is in preparation and due for release later in 2026 from Clifton Edition.
Mark Goddard’s Five Orbits, originally called “CIrcles”, was composed in as 1982, work won the Royal Academy of Music’s Humphrey Searle Composition Prize., The work was revised by the composer in 2021 and fully typeset to the highest standards. This new edition replaces the old legacy edition of 1982.
Total duration: about 12.5 minutes.
I 3:20 Page 1
II 2:00 Page 8
III 2:30 Page 17
IV 3:00 Page 26
V 1:40 Page 41
Programme Note
The musical form is essentially cyclic and centres on a small number of motivic elements, both harmonic and melodic, that reoccur in various guises.
The five movements alternate between reflective and robust moods: slow-fast-slow-fast-slow. The reflective core of the piece (Movement III) is preoccupied by an inverted canon between violin and cello, later passed to trumpet and viola, which encapsulates and distils these intense motivic ingredients.
‘Circles for chamber ensemble’ was composed in 1982 and won the Humphrey Searle Composition Prize at the Royal Academy of Music.
Score and parts will be available soon.