Description
Hayes, Morgan: Dances on a Ground. String Quartet
Ref
Y248
Categories
Instrumental Music
,
String Ensembles
,
Strings
By
Morgan Hayes
Score and parts
6 minutes
Commissioned by Bromsgrove Concerts with financial assistance from Arts Council England
1st perf: Smith Quartet, Artrix, Bromsgrove, 27 February 2009
Favoured by English composers from Purcell to Vaughan Williams and Britten, the ground-bass form receives a contemporary makeover in Morgan Hayes’s
Dances on a Ground
. Artfully four-square, a cello ostinato stays stubbornly true to its original thoughts. Meanwhile, above it a capricious ensemble of two violins and viola swaggers its way through flights of melody and jumpy pizzicati to an ecstatic conclusion. Commissioned by Bromsgrove Concerts with funding provided by Arts Council England,
Dances on a Ground
was first performed by the innovative Smith Quartet at the Artrix, Bromsgrove, on 27 February 2009.
