Time Travel

Time Travel comprises four orchestral movements, composed with the symphonic form in mind although not actually termed a symphony as such.  The title characterises both time and travel as separate identities and as an overall concept; the movements are linked together by motivic material and the first three lead towards movement 4.  This last movement, Somewhere Unknown, is also performable on its own. 

The first movement, Procession, is inspired by two quite different Spanish processions; the introduction by the Procesión de la Virgen de La Asunción (Procession of theVirgin) which takes place each year in the small Spanish town of Los Alcázares, and the main section by the famous Easter Sunday procession inCartagena.  A description of the processions is provided overleaf.

Summer Lake, the second movement, is a lyrical idyll representing a feeling of freedom in the summer as well as associations with Mahler and his summercomposing near lakes in Austria. SummerLake is especially written for my husband, Ian, who is a great admirer ofMahler’s work.

The transitional and transient nature of the third movement, Dreams are not always Nightmares, is less overtly related to the concept of time and travel, but represents this through an imaginary journey of the mind. Dreams can be nightmares; gritty details broken up with pleasant recollections and jumbled around, futures erratically but inaccurately foretold, unknown territories and indecipherable responses.  Although the movement is in the style of scherzo, it is really less of a joke and more a patchwork pattern of superimposed but connected motifs, tense but forceful and sparse, with a momentum that leads towards the rich orchestration of the concluding movement.

Somewhere Unknown, movement 4, is an unknown journey.  The overall musical concept is a broad, continuously evolving musical landscape, intentionally rich in orchestral texture and tonality but with a bitter-sweet harmonic language. The movement was written during the two months following the death of my mother and is partly a direct emotional response to that period but also aspires towards a more positive and optimistic future.