Introduction and Scherzo is a somewhat enigmatic work. The programme note for the inaugural performance hinted that it was born of a sense of playfulness around a mode common to the late music of Liszt (the sound world of Nuages Gris and Lugubre Gondola I presumably, which Introduction and Scherzo somewhat resembles) that could lend itself to more Blues-like invention. It is likely that the scale in question is C-flat–D-flat–E-flat–F-sharp–G-natural–A-natural–B-flat, which first appears at m.8. Another abiding presence is the pedal glissandi that together intone a three-note chromatic motif on the notes C-sharp–C-nat–C-flat. Given the prevalence of the Christchurch earthquake as a theme for many of the works on Webby's 2012 album Pluck, on which Introduction and Scherzo appears, one is tempted to view these three Cs as a possible musical reference to the city's name. Certainly, the pedal glissandi themselves pepper the Introduction like unpredictable shocks. If the music might be said to be about anything it might well be the elusive search for stability. The upper notes of the mode remain stable around these changing Cs, such that the Introduction attains varying degrees of consonance and dissonance.
The ensuing Scherzo represents a more animated working out of the Introduction's materials – particularly through triplets grouped in fives and other rhythmic manifestations of five. After a tentative opening the music strives towards the upper register, culminating in an eruption of bluesy good humour. There follows a Debussy-like episode with a polymetric idea in a superimposed 3/8 time signature (somewhat in the manner of ragtime), underpinned by the descending three-semitone motif. A succeeding episode ruminates more freely on the main materials without being able to settle on any stable mood or key.
The piece climaxes with a sustained and emotionally uplifting "song without words" in the Lydian mode. It is as if this were the stability the entire piece had been searching for. It proceeds in two large arches, the second an octave higher than the first and more fully scored. It cannot find an endpoint to the piece however, and dissolves into a return of the scattered fragments of the Introduction. Towards the end, an augmented version of the 3/8 episode suddenly erupts in E-flat major, as if to proclaim a long-sought reconciliation. It is answered, rather impishly, with peeling glissandos that seem to mock this attempt. The piece ends with a played version (via a grace note) of the pedal glissando – not as violent, but uneasy nonetheless.
This work is dedicated to harpist Helen Webby, who premiered the work and has helped shape numerous aspects of voicing and articulation within it.
