Quiet Thoughts / Myfyrdodau Tawel
after Gwen John
for clarinet, horn, harp, violin, cello and samples. 4'
2025
First performed by Sinfonia Cymru
at the Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy, Wales, 11 September 2025
for clarinet, horn, harp, violin, cello and samples. 4'
2025
First performed by Sinfonia Cymru
at the Parc and Dare Theatre, Treorchy, Wales, 11 September 2025
Quiet Thoughts / Myfyrdodau Tawel is a short piece commissioned by Sinfonia Cymru and Music Theatre Wales to open the 'Our Music, Our Stories' concert at the Parc and Dare Theatre in Treorchy, Wales. The piece is based on Harriet Fleuriot short film 'Interior Windows/Ffenestri Mewnol' which saw older women from the Rhondda respond to a quote by the artist Gwen John. It's a very sensitively constructed film and sees the women posed in a similar fashion to John's famous portraits.
The ladies interviewed in Harriet's film reminded me greatly of my own grandparents and that Gwen John was from Tenby, not far from my hometown, meant I felt a deeper personal connection to this piece than perhaps some others. The musical material derives entirely from the speech of the first lady in the film. She talks of how 'you live your life to the best of you ability...there's things perhaps you could alter...or you might have thought, "I wish that hadn't happened...' and so on. This inspired me to ask the young composers who had works premiered in the same concert to provide a little quote of their own inspired by the lady's speech. Recordings of these quotes are played back in my piece along with the lady's original interview recordings to provide what is hoped to be a beautiful intergenerational conversation about how one can live a happy and meaningful life.
The piece is being expanded into a larger suite, so look out for its first performance soon.
The ladies interviewed in Harriet's film reminded me greatly of my own grandparents and that Gwen John was from Tenby, not far from my hometown, meant I felt a deeper personal connection to this piece than perhaps some others. The musical material derives entirely from the speech of the first lady in the film. She talks of how 'you live your life to the best of you ability...there's things perhaps you could alter...or you might have thought, "I wish that hadn't happened...' and so on. This inspired me to ask the young composers who had works premiered in the same concert to provide a little quote of their own inspired by the lady's speech. Recordings of these quotes are played back in my piece along with the lady's original interview recordings to provide what is hoped to be a beautiful intergenerational conversation about how one can live a happy and meaningful life.
The piece is being expanded into a larger suite, so look out for its first performance soon.