Michael Berkeley: Veilleuse
Last year I was asked to write a piece for violin and piano
for the Belgrade Festival. Not having enough time to embark on anything new, I seized the
opportunity to extract the one of an early violin sonata that I still liked, and reworked
it.
Essentially this is the slow movement of my 1979 Violin
Sonata, but now incorporating some thematically related music from the last movement. The
original material that has been retained also includes a melodic idea from my earliest
published orchestral score, Meditations for string orchestra which embraces the
same, largely tonal, harmonic landscape. Veilleuse means 'Night Watch' or 'Night
Lantern' and the music has a slightly melancholy, restless atmosphere which momentarily
erupts in a passionate outburst before settling back to the quietly ticking, veiled lines
of the opening.
Michael Berkeley
