Dances & Laments

A duo for violin and ‘cello, dedicated to the violinist Phillipe Graffin, which received its première in 2010 at the Consonances Festival in St Nazaire in France. The opening melancholic solo cello melody of the Lontano bleeds into a disturbing and frantic 12/8 dance. The Elegy is violin-led, as is the Aria. It is all tied in at the end by the final dance (Dance in Three) whose thematic material is drawn from the first movement's opening cello melody, and we realise that the piece has landed not far from where it took off.