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A Farewell

2018

for 6 violas

duration:

11’

After spending nearly half my life in Scotland, and raising a family there, the decision to move back to England was not taken lightly.

A series of chamber pieces that happened to follow each other over the summer of 2018 seemed an apt way to express the mixture of emotions I was experiencing at that time, and I began to plan a series of ‘farewells’ to Scotland.


The first of these is ‘A Farewell’ for six violas. It takes its inspiration from Gaelic psalm singing, in which a precentor is followed by a congregation of improvising voices, creating an extraordinary counterpoint of ornamented lines.


The psalm I took as a starting point is psalm 46 – which has at its centre the words ‘Be still’.


The piece starts with the first viola in an unsettled soliloquy, which is answered by the other violas in a gentle, consonant canon.

The variations that follow range from exuberant to wistful; until the troubled music of the opening returns - like a final questioning - before the piece closes with a downward sigh.


A Farewell was commissioned by Sound – Scotland’s festival of new music; and performed at Sound 2018  by Sally Beamish, Scott Dickinson, Garth Knox, Claire Merlet, Nic Pendlebury and Stephen Upshaw.

Premiere details

First performed at Sound 2018  by Sally Beamish, Scott Dickinson, Garth Knox, Claire Merlet, Nic Pendlebury and Stephen Upshaw.

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