Composer’s Note:

This work has been chastised as a mere Bartok pastiche. While this remains true, I do not think it should be so easily dismissed. Keep in mind that it was written by a 21-year-old, and as such, I believe, shows a fair degree of maturity. It borrows and adapts Hungarian melodies (I have subsequently forgotten which) taken from one of Bartok’s myriad collections.

It was originally written at the request of New Zealand violist Peter Barber, who then went on to perform and record it. It was composed in a very short period of time, and the ending (with harmonics) came to me in a dream. It has been outstandingly performed more recently by Rudolph Haken on a five-string viola pomposa built by David Ravinus. Rudolph recorded it on Talencourt, an album of my string music, released by Capstone records in 2008.