Reflecting on the Belfast Music Society’s 2010 Festival theme ‘Root and
Branch’, I recalled my past composition teachers and considered my own
influences as a composer. Kevin Volans was a Composer In Residence during
my time at Queen’s and to this day I still refer to his lesson notes. I
remember discussing compositional material, method and result and the changes
that you make to your chosen material. These changes should be few but
the rate of change should change. This one idea has been a mayor
influence in my career both as a composer and a music educator.
As a composer, I am interested in the physical gestures that musicians
perform when they play together, especially string players, and it is those
gestures that give direction to my work. The piece is based on a one-bar
gesture that appears in various guises throughout the work. The opening
pizzicato rhythmic interplay between the four instruments follows a series of
specific pitches. The one-bar gesture now appears bringing in a new,
slower and expressive section, with the first violin and cello often in unison
and the inner two instruments with a drone-like quality. Again the brief
gesture ends this section but now sticks around to be developed before the
final section. Here the players alternate open and stopped strings in
fast moving lines.
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