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Programme Note

I wrote this piece in June and July of 1993 for Clio Gould. I have long admired her playing, and the piece is dedicated to her. There is nothing complicated about the title – no attempts at imitation of sonnet structure or any arcane rhyming scheme: it just seemed like a nice name for a piece which was intended to be straightforwardly lyrical - one long tune, in fact. Piano and violin are not equal partners here as they would be in a sonata: nevertheless I hope there is enough of interest for the piano to do. As for the violin, it never stops playing.

I suppose the piece is binary, in the sense that the tune happens twice. The opening rhetorical section, marked ‘exultante’, is more white-note than anything I’ve written for some time: this character alternates with chromatic music. The tune begins pianissimo on the violin and, by way of a rising section with much double stopping, comes to the climax and a return of an enhanced version of the opening declamation. The tune returns pianissimo as before, but in a higher register and with a more flowing and intricate accompaniment. From now on the violin spends most of its time in the stratosphere before a final, ghostly return of the opening rhetorical figure in harmonics at the very end.

Hugh Wood