Ardent

fl,cl, pno, mar, vln, vcl (1993)
12 mins

ARDENT was commissioned by the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in 1993. It was composed in the spring of that year and first performed at St Donats Castle in South Wales.

Much of my music starts in a certain way and does not deviate from those parameters set up at the opening. For instance if the piece is loud and fast then so be it for the whole thing. ARDENT was the first piece in which I decided to incorporate different parameters (maybe different emotional slants) in the same piece.

There are five distinct sections – fast, slow, fast, slow, fast. There is no attempt to blend or fuse these sections. They use the same material, placed in different contexts, and each section is internally structured, as is the whole, by way of bald juxtaposition. The main thread of development which does occur throughout the piece is contained in solo piano chords. Initially these are moments of repose but as the piece progresses they expand, using elements of cross-relation, and the music closes with a piano coda, which I tend to think questions why I bothered with all the other stuff.