A Farewell (2018)

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.