Description

The composer writes of ELEGY as follows:

In 1980 a friend of mine returned from a trip to Africa with an unusual gift – a recording she had made of a young girl absently singing to herself. For months afterwards the recording haunted me; it’s intricate ornamentation, rhythmic invention, quarter-note inflections and not least of all, the sheer beauty of the singing. I decided to ‘exorcise’ the recording by writing a piece dedicated to this anonymous singer and the lost or rapidly disappearing tribes of Africa.

ELEGY takes the form of a series of variations, each one expanding in complexity, pitch range and ornamentation, differing aspects of the opening material. These variations assume ever widening cycles; however, they always return to the common still centre of the work, the refrain figure heard in the opening bars.

[The composer favours the alto flute as the ideal instrument for this short piece.]

Score (3-fold A4) £12.50