Clouds and Mountains – for Violin & Guitar (score only)

1. In Granite Heights, A Storm Gathers (duration ca. 3:47)

2. Cirrus, Wind and White (duration ca. 4:12)

The music is inspired by the dynamic movements, shapes and colours of clouds within or above the summits of great peaks. However, there is no programme intended in the score and so the music is its own world.

Nonetheless, in the first piece there is an emergence of energy from the slow introduction, as if forces are gathering. The mood throughout is one of portent, the chordal treatment signalling the advent of both hopeful and dismal scenes. The opening phrases of the work form the melodic identity which reoccurs within a vibrant rhythmic and harmonically shifting accompaniment. The ebb and flow of the music’s trajectory reveal the spirit and vigour of the title.

Cirrus, Wind and White has a more vital energy. It commences and concludes with exuberance and elation. It is the feeling of lightness and elation one experiences in the high country with a bright sky and racing cloud. The brief “Lento” section provides a meditative chorale, a lull, a quieter time before the music returns to its first flight, the original thematic motif closing the work as its had begun it.