I’ve
just had a fantastic day down at Tŷ Cerdd’s recording studio at Wales
Millennium Centre with the Mavron String Quartet and Francesca Kay recording my
quartet, footsteps quiet in the shadows,
for a CD.
Although
the quartet is only just over twelve minutes, we had four hours of recording
time booked so that we could get every aspect of it right. And we still have
the editing session yet to come … We
had Ty Cerdd’s engineer, James Clark at the control desk
guiding us smoothly through the day.
The
Mavrons have given eight public performances of the quartet and really have it
under their belts. Last week I spent a very long day finishing a final copy of
the score and it was useful to copy it out again to familiarise myself with all
its details. Here’s a photo of pages from the last movement – although I can
use music software, I dislike it and prefer to make my scores by hand.
It
was great to have Francesca Kay in the recording studio with us. The piece
takes its title from a poem called Unicorn
by Francesca from her collection Mythical
Beasts. She’s been able to read it at most of the performances, and the
transition from her reading into the opening bars is a magical moment which we
all now regard as an integral part of the piece. Here she is today reading it
in the studio.
Look
out for news of the CD itself.
Many
thanks to Chrissie, Katie, Niamh, Bea, Francesca, James and Jim for all their
work today.
