I was scouring the internet looking for something quite different for my website and stumbled across this concert performance of my string quartet Bempton Cliffs.
Bempton Cliffs had started life as a workshop for material that would feature in my first opera Flight Paths, for which I did not yet have a libretto.
The music is inspired by the various bird calls on the clifftops at Bempton, where my opera was to be set. In particular, I was fascinated by the fact that facing inland on the cliff, one would hear (to human ears, at least) the delicate and melodious of the birds of the field, while, by contrast, facing seaward, one would be confronted by the raucous and dissonant cries of the kittiwake, puffin and gulls.
Bempton Cliffs
The contrast is somehow unified (I hope) by the folk-like melody that begins in the ‘cello and gradually ascends through the viola and violins. This melody was inspired by Hungarian folk song, as I knew that one of the inportant characters of the cliff tops would be a Hungarian, played by my wife Anikó Tóth.
The premier and original recordings were performed by Voxare, who also formed part of the ensemble in the final version of the opera.
