for Luc Brewaeys

This piece represents the third time that I have written a piano piece specifically for, or at the request of, the pianist Ian Pace. It is also the third time that I have written a solo piano piece. As a result, my working relationship with the piano is inextricably linked to my working relationship with Ian: a formidable pianist who has tackled some of the most difficult and innovative piano music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. To work with such a musician opens up the possibilities of music for the piano that can also be incredibly intimidating: if almost anything can be done it is difficult to work out what should be done. The composer Luc Brewaeys has also influenced my work in different ways. I first met him in 2010, at a weekend festival of his music in Bruges, and was struck by his openness, enthusiasm, and willingness to talk about his own music and that of other people. Over time I was continually inspired by the speed and intensity with which he worked, and at the way he was constantly ready to give support and encouragement to other composers despite his own personal difficulties. It would have been a pleasure and a privilege to share a programme with him and I’m sad not to have that opportunity. In my more recent compositional practice I have been working on iterative compositional practices, so to return to a fully notated score gives me the opportunity to think about my approach to composition and how it might reflect both of these influences. This has caused me to look very closely at the musical material that I create and think about how it can be organised. In the past my work has been quite concerned with musical processes, and in writing this piece I have been concerned with creating layers of musical processes within the material that cannot be heard in the performance but nevertheless are an ordering principal of the material. There are two kinds of material in the piece: bars that are measured and relatively sparse and slow, and sections that are unmeasured, fast and flowing. The music alternates these materials, which are linked in their processual nature, to create a constellation of sound that takes in the (pitch) range of the piano whilst remaining on the keys. This overlaying of processes also creates subtle impossibilities that provide an interpretative challenge for the pianist: where exact technical replication is not possible, a small space is created in which to hear the pianist’s perspective on the music