Fretwork

Fantazia for four viols. 1995.

I found the titles of the three short movements of this piece in the index of First-lines, Titles and Sub-titles in Zimmerman’s Purcell catalogue.

All the music is derived from a handful of notes from the beginning of one of Purcell’s D minor Fantazias. The original Purcell is progressively revealed in the first section, Begin the Song, and then shrouded again in the second, Beneath a dark and melancholy, and third, A Good-Night.

Commissioned by The South Bank Centre. First performed 7th March 1995, The Purcell Room, London.

Three Fantasias for six viols. 2001.

• clearing the sky of clouds
• the sky is behind her
• the darkness is night

Three Songs for alto & six viols. 2001.

• (the sensation of slight things)
• A LETTER NOT TO POST
• Clouds

Three Arias for oboe & six viols. 2001.

• After the last rains left the sky
• Dolorous Interlude
• they pass from the sea to the Castle

When the writer Fernando Pessoa died in Lisbon in 1935, he left behind a large trunk full of poetry, horoscopes, unfinished stories, essays, plays, translations, letters and journals, typed, hand-written or scrawled in Portuguese, English and French. He wrote on the backs of letters, on handbills, envelopes and scraps of paper. He described the Book of Disquiet as “fragments, fragments, fragments”.

In the spirit of Pessoa, I have made a loose-leaf collection of short pieces: three for viol consort (Three Fantasias from the Book of Disquiet), three for alto and viols (Three Songs) and three for oboe with viols (Three Arias). The songs are settings of texts by Pessoa and the fantasias and arias have titles drawn from the Book of Disquiet. The performers can make their own selection and order.

Commissioned by Nicholas Daniel. The first performance was given by Fretwork, at St Mary in the Catle, Hastings, on 2nd November 2001

Published by Faber Music Ltd.