National Anthems (2022)
Piano
Duration:
13′
First Performance:
14 February 2023
Duncan Honeybourne, Town Hall, Inverurie, UK
Score
Programme note
National Anthems carries on my current preoccupation with the transfiguration of material from one state of being to something different, perhaps more spiritual and beautiful than the original. These four pieces are perhaps the most strict and direct of the transfigurations that I have undertaken in the past year or two and are thus the most distilled examples of the technique. Whereas earlier pieces such as Folksongs and Songs of Morning and Night sought to gently transform pre-existing material into short, ‘re-imaginings’, the National Anthems are longer, opaquer and often follow the same models and forms until they culminate or dissolve. These four pieces are all transfigurations of extant national anthems, but all feature a second, related, national anthem that permeates the music at various points – in doing so, I am making a slight, if benign political statement, with the second anthem often relating to a belligerent nation state, or an ongoing move to independence and the like. Akin to the earlier pieces, the National Anthems are still light and often humorous, seeking to take these well-worn pieces, full of bluster and patriotism and to encounter them in an entirely different manner.
PAC
