Character Suites Volume 6

Volume 6 offers two contrasting suites for intermediate to advanced players. These pieces have even been performed by professional quartets, who loved their lyrical qualities. The Suite of Tales tells four stories, quite literally — each originally based on a children's poem. If you'd like to know more, please email me. The Nova Liturgia Suite is far more abstract, with intense harmonies running throughout, and calls for a good level of bow control and sound production to really do it justice.

Dreamweavers is one of my personal favourites of all. My own quartet has opened several lyrical recitals with this piece. It builds up in dreamy ostinatos, from first violin down to cello, weaving together into a pattern that is at once simple and complex. In Reflection, you can hear water running and an unusual story unfold — I happily leave it up to each group to decide just what that story is. If you'd like to know the poem behind it, get in touch. Bravado is my only piece so far played entirely pizzicato — tricky, but wonderful practice for counting and pizzicato technique alike! Gentle Giant has been a true favourite for over a decade now, both for quartets (especially loved by boys, I've noticed!) and orchestras. Again, feel free to invent your own story — or email me for the poem behind it.

The Nova Liturgia Suite spans four movements, musically connected and mostly performed as a set — though I have heard the Interlude played as a stand-alone piece. The first and last movements may look easy, but they are not: they demand tone and bow-speed control to bring out the tension and expression intended. The Fugue is lively and restless, the Interlude invites unusual, surprising harmonies and rhythms, and the Postlude connects back to the Prelude in character, almost quoting it at the very end.