Description

Dances Op.84 is an extended one-movement work of strong colours and contrasts. The style is modern but accessible, creating stark, dramatic and evocative sound worlds, …underpinned with effective dance-like rhythms and a powerful drive and momentum.
The three instruments are equally important, with each acting as soloist and accompanist in equal measure, exploring a darkly-hued palette of colours and timbres. Composed in a direct, confident and rich musical language and lasting around seven minutes, Dances doesn’t outstay its welcome and is a powerful work with an assertive message to convey. “Thinking of tonal qualities was the reason behind my choice of instruments, feeling that these three would blend well together and cover a wide range.
The opening recitatives contain the motifs for the rest of the piece, evolving, as it did naturally, into varying speeds and moods which suggested the movement of dance. Perhaps it could be thought of as an experimental exercise of how these three instruments might relate in sounds, finding their way, as it were, from the initial freely played phrases continuing on their journey towards an ending which brings them home.” [Programme note by Judith Bailey]