LeFanu: Dawn’s Dove

Description

• Composer: Nicola LeFanu (1947-)
• Instrumentation: Alto (Treble) Recorder
• Work: Dawn’s Dove
• Binding:
• UPC: 884088831554
• Pages: None

Description

Dawn’s Dove for solo recorder was composed in 1994. It was first performed by John Turner, who commissioned it, at a concert in honour of the sixtieth birthday of the composer Anthony Gilbert, to whom the piece is dedicated. It is not a literal birdsong, but I hope it captures the spirit of jubilant dawn chorus – as well as the softer sounds of a dove, which does not get up as early as other birds! I wrote it while I was writing my opera ‘The Wildman’ and the epilogue of that opera is introduced by a piccolo solo which is very like Dawn’s Dove – they share material. in the opera, it signifies early morning. Part way through Dawn’s Dove, the tempo becomes steadier and I quote from a beautiful work of Anthony Gilbert, his ‘Towards Asavari’, for piano and ensemble. At the end of that work, there is a trumpet solo which outlines the Indian raga on which the piece is based. My quote alludes to that. The unfolding melodic line of Dawn’s Dove is sometimes inflected by microtones; the piece lasts between two and three minutes.