Abstract

Tread Softly was commissioned by New Music Southwest and published by Edition HH. It was premiered by members of the Bristol Ensemble at Bristol St. Georges (2015) and Royal West of England Academy (2015). It has also been performed at the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Rooms by the Manon quartet (2015). Inspiration for this piece came from two contrasting sources: the religious music of early medieval Spain, and Debbie Locke’s work of art ‘Retracing Your Steps - Bristol I’. The two sources share a powerful sense of movement enclosed within a static form. In early Spanish music this is communicated through extended melisma, and in Locke’s work it is depicted through the seemingly moving, web-like form of the central image. Tread Softly explores the idea of movement within stasis through the use of a main melodic gesture that transforms very slowly, but constantly, throughout.