Commissioned by Fenella Humphreys as part of her Bach to the Future project. Premiered by Fenella at the Peter Pears Recital Room, Snap Maltings, on the 10th September 2014.

  • vn
  • 11 min 5 s

Programme Note

Suite No. 1 was commissioned by Fenella Humphreys as part of her Bach to the Future project, and premiered at the Peter Pears Recital Room, Snape Maltings, September 2014.

My work is inspired by J.S. Bach's Partita No. 3 in E major BWV 1006, but rather than base my work on any specific motives or harmonies, I simply listened and listened to the Bach, identified what really appealed to me, then tried to forget Bach's music and write a work which had similar feelings, melodic shapes and moods, or that employed a similar striking violin technique (for example). For instance, the first movement is based around the open e string, as it was the joyful 'e-ness' of Bach's first movement which really struck me. In other movements I tried to recreate the energy, phrasing and poise of various parts of the Bach, and one movement features a drone all the way through (where as in the Bach this only appears briefly).

The movements are as follows
I) Adagietto II) Allegro scherzando
III) Adagio cantabile
IV) Allegro molto
V) Allegro giocoso

© Cheryl Frances-Hoad, 2014

Media

Reviews

Discography