29 Nov burl

solo piano [5’30”] 2017.

Commissioner: Stephen De Pledge

Funder: Creative New Zealand and NZ On Air

Recording: RNZ Concert & SOUNZ

Premiere: New Zealand International Festival, 27 February 2018

Program note:

Of all the movements in J.S. Bach’s Partita no.3 in A minor, it’s the burlesca that speaks most compellingly to me. I love its obsessive ornamentation and the confounding eruption of parallel octaves two-thirds of the way through. The recurring twists and turns makes me think of the way wood grows around an an insect or an injury. Over time, these irregularities amplify, forming a complex pattern — a burl. Often described as a deformity, the tree has in fact healed itself.

Commissioned by Stephen De Pledge for the New Zealand Partita project, premiered at the 2018 New Zealand Festival.