Five Duets
Inspired by Five Liz Larkin Paintings

This piece was written as a gift for Liz Larkin on the occasion of her 60th birthday and was commissioned by her husband Chris Speller. The premiere performance took place at their home in Bristol and was a surprise part of a small party for Liz.

I am extremely grateful to Chris for commissioning the work which was composed in January 2018 after sneaky viewings of the paintings. My thanks too go to Mandhira De Saram and Richard Jones who worked with me on the pieces, gave the premiere performance and made a recording.

The dramatic perspective of this picture contrasts canopy and foliage. The instruments take on a reverse journey – viola moving up from ground level toward the canopy, violin vice versa. Where they cross a little turbulence in an otherwise serene atmosphere creeps in. The cold tones of the final, rocking arpeggios hint at shade, the equivalent material at the beginning of the piece is warmer, hinting at sunlight.

The structure of this piece reflects my morphing response to this large canvas. Upon seeing the picture my imagination flicked through alternative views of the subject. From a coastal landscape the large blocks of colour deconstructed to an abstract image. In a flight of fancy I then reformed this into the fantastical image of a penguin [apparently able to fly?!] suddenly appearing from the left.
 The musical structure is based around this narrative – the outer material that opens and closes the piece is a reflection of my response to the atmosphere of the overwhelmingly large, sparse, atmospheric landscape. The central sections deconstruct this music into a more abstract soundworld followed by a rhythmically over-enthusiastic passage you might take to be a penguin fly-by?!

This is one of the most striking paintings in the set. The quite drastically different, more impressionistic painting technique is exciting but despite its radically different style there is an uncanny consistency with the other pictures.
 
This inspired me to try to do the same! Exploring an unfamiliar process based on minimalist and ‘process’ techniques I dissected the picture and directly mapped colours of the clearly visible brushstrokes to harmonies. Working back and forth, this created blurry, impressionistic material that loops around a repeated phrase (a harmonic representation of the vibrant yellow in the centre of the picture). The shimmering, fading end is a nod to the eye following the yellow shimmer into the distance.

With this piece I hope to capture some sense of the scale, drama and movement of the painting. It begins in a sparse, atmospheric soundworld. As the piece unfolds the grandness of the implied landscape is mapped onto passages of rich double stops for each instrument. These combine in different ways and at the end grow to evoke something of the furiously rushing water.

This piece is split into mini-movements, portraying a fantastical narrative reflecting the eye’s journey around the composition of the picture.
I > Upon Entering
The big swirl bordering the painting from bottom to top is our secret entry to a fantastical garden. Upon entering one might feel a little spooked…
II > Nocturnal
The garden itself, bathed in moonlight is a beautiful nocturnal scene and the music here flits between cascading phrases based on three beats and other, arced phrases, based on four. Some trepidation returns though as they join uneasily together (perhaps the large bushes hide some malice!).
III > Sanctuary
Finally, reaching the potting shed with warm, cosy lights feels like sanctuary. The lights imply human presence (perhaps… almost certainly… of a loved one) and the violin and viola return short, romantic themes.