Michael's Strathspey (1985)

A Strathspey is a traditional Scottish dance in 4/4 time and moderate tempo which typically begins nearly every bar with an accented semiquaver/16th note. This one-minute piano solo (written in 1985 for Michael Finnissy, to celebrate his Presidency of the British Music Information Centre) is based on a traditional Scottish tune ‘The Leys O’Luncarty’. However the intervals of that tune have been transposed into a new mode, and the rhythmic characteristics made more extreme. For the whole piece except for the final chord, the pianist plays in the top register of the piano, and the spacing of the chords, with many octaves and fifths, results in metallic resonances and occasionally, difference tones.

© Judith Weir