for oboe, clarinet in Bb, alto sax, violin, cello, piano (2008/14)
8’30”
f.p. Uroboros Ensemble at The Warehouse, London, on 10th April 2008. It was subsequently revised in 2014.
Programme note
William Billings and Supply Belcher wrote great eighteenth-century American Harmonies – collections of hymns and sacred songs – and named them after the places they were composed or sung – Maine, New England, &c. My Harmonies of South London series (Catford, Lewisham, Nunhead and Peckham) evokes this tradition, and so is not an attempt to portray the places mentioned in the titles. The Catford Harmony continues my abiding interest in elemental or rudimentary musical materials: the piece is made out of lines which are very restricted in pitch and rhythm; these are joined together into a rough, bracing and joyful harmony.