---

Programme Note

The flowing, breezy ‘The Disposition of the Linen’ emphasises the common ground shared between baroque variation technique and Nyman’s ability to generate countless melodic ideas out of single harmonic sequences or bass lines. Based on Purcell’s secular ‘song upon a ground’ – ‘She Loves and She Confesses Too’ – Nyman builds a series of simultaneously sounding melodic variations upon a rapid, unchanging 24-note bass line. Players are invited to freely play each two-bar melody a chosen number of times, which results in complex melodic overlays. This technique was originally developed in Nyman’s early Waltzes (one in D, the other in F), creating an interesting synthesis of Terry Riley’s In C and baroque variation form.