I – Maestoso, lamentoso
II – Boisterous then placid
III – Placid then maestoso

The three movements of this piece are linked by a vague, loosely connected set of ideas about music being remembered, forgotten, misremembered, imagined or deteriorating:

• A sense of music (including my own) disappearing, fading away, during the COVID-dominated year of 2020.
• Health conditions during 2022 resulting in blackouts and the sense of familiar words, sights and sounds becoming blurred or indistinct.
• A dictaphone ‘misremembering’ sounds in 2021 – the record button had been pressed at the wrong time.

 
All of this might have found its way, audibly or not, into this piece. Most of the music, at least in some distant way, takes something I have written previously – often something that is itself based on something older still – and transforms it, misremembers it, sometimes beyond recognition.

Instrumentation:

orchestra: 2.2.2(II=Eb.cl, b.cl).2(II=cbsn) – 2.2.2.1 – fixed audio – strings (recommended 10.8.6.6.4)

Duration:

20 mins

Commission:

Commissioned by BBC Radio 3

Score and Parts:

For hire of performance materials, please contact promotion@fabermusic.com

Performances:

1 Apr 2023

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicholas Collon (cond.)
Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK

 World premiere