Each of the movements in this three-piece concert suite is also free-standing and may be played separately.  They are all transcriptions of the composer’s earlier works, idiomatically arranged for viola and piano.

Cantilena borrows freely from pop and jazz styles: primary and secondary chords are used in arpeggiated piano figures, as mainstream ballads often do.  Pedal notes are also a feature, especially on the tonic note, and a bluesy style emerges in the third main theme.  A pseudo-rock style is twice used in the climax section, which acts as a song-like chorus.  Cantilena, originally composed for flute and piano, is in the key of D major overall, but even the introduction uses ‘wrong note’ harmony (notably flattened sevenths) to produce ambiguous tonality.  This viola version demonstrates a range of tone colour for the viola across a wide melodic span. 

Duration 4’25”

‘…while we think of all that was’ is a reworking of the song An End  from the composer’s song cycle …too bitter sweet Op 27, and takes it title from a line in the Rossetti poem suggesting a transition from experiencing love to mourning it.  Based on a rising minor arpeggio in an E minor modal tonality, the main theme is varied slightly on each statement.  Likewise, the secondary motif, first heard in bars 27-30, is presented differently each time.  Wistful throughout and unashamedly melodic, the viola part is in constant dialogue with the piano accompaniment.

Duration 3’20”

Abigail’s Jig is a lively and characterful piece capturing the atmosphere of an Irish jig.  The piano accompaniment is harmonically straightforward, using a mixture of ‘vamping’ and melodic imitations of the viola part.  It was originally composed in 1980 for flute and piano to celebrate the birth of the composer’s daughter.

Following four bars of key-suspending introductions (which openly parodies Copland’s ‘cowboy music’ – most obviously the Hoe-Down rhythms from Rodeo), roughly two thirds of the piece is in D minor.  Modal harmony helps to create the mood of pseudo-folk music.  The main theme starts in the viola and for 20 bars the two instruments take turns to present the melody, the piano vamping for the most part.

The viola adds an angular countermelody when the introductory music returns.  This leads to the second theme, still in D minor and based largely on arpeggios and scales.  Before long, the harmony modulates sequentially and builds up to a key change to E minor, which presents the first theme unexpectedly softly, in keeping with the humour of the piece.

The recap here is contracted before the climax, where the viola plays decorative triplets against a strong statement in the lower piano of the main theme in augmentation.

After a final exuberant reference to the introductory material, the piece finishes with a joyful viola flourish.

Duration c. 2’45”