This work is a 2013 Royal Philharmonic Society/Britten-Pears Foundation commission to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten and the bicentenary of the foundation of the Royal Philharmonic Society. First performance on 8th June 2013 by the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.
Duration: c. 16 minutes Suggested minimum strings: 8.6.4.4.2 players
COMPOSER’S NOTE My aim when I began this piece was to create a long length of string music out of a single strand of melody. While experimenting at the beginning, shaping and extending a melody in many possible directions, I came across William Blake’s lines… I give you the end of a golden string; Only wind it into a ball, It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate, Built in Jerusalem’s wall …and this became my working method, winding a single tune around itself so that it gradually formed itself into a much richer, more complex texture. The process happens three times, producing the equivalent of a continuous three-movement concerto. The ‘first movement’ is engendered by two solo violas (the melody at the beginning already entwined with a slightly alternative version of itself). The ‘slow movement’ (a more extended, more decorated development of the opening tune) is introduced by a solo cello (soon winding itself into a quartet of celli). The fast ‘finale’, led by two solo violins, focuses on decorations within the melody, rolling out ribbons of (Britten-like?) thirds. J.W.