John Pickard
INSOMNIA for violin & piano
Bardic Edition BDE1062
Anyone unfortunate enough to be afflicted by insomnia will be all too familiar with the symptoms: the inability to lie comfortably no matter how hard you try; the way the mind races, sometimes latching onto random thoughts and chasing them round the brain in a maddening loop; the uncomfortable enhanced awareness of your own body, every itch, every twinge of discomfort, every unnaturally amplified heartbeat another obstruction on the endless road to blessed oblivion. Above all, the knowledge that the longer it takes for sleep to come and the more of a wreck one will feel the next day is an inescapable fact which only adds to the anxiety and further prevents sleep. As a (mercifully) occasional insomniac, I decided to try to exorcise these sensations by writing a piece of music which confronts them head-on. So far, I can report that this unorthodox form of auto-therapy has met with a modest degree of success.
Insomnia alternates two speeds: the first is basically slow but packed with incident, sometimes turbulent and, just occasionally, dreamy. The second tempo is fast, and its first two (brief) appearances are dominated by a ghostly scurrying in the violin part. Two speeds occur alternately three times, but on its third appearance the fast music takes off in furious perpetual motion. At the climax, references to the slow music come back but are now absorbed into the fast tempo. The work then races to an abrupt conclusion.
This work was composed for Oliver Lewis during the summer of 1997. It was commissioned by him for several performances throughout the UK during 1998, with financial assistance from the Arts Council of England. John Pickard
Duration 12 minutes
Insomnia alternates two speeds: the first is basically slow but packed with incident, sometimes turbulent and, just occasionally, dreamy. The second tempo is fast, and its first two (brief) appearances are dominated by a ghostly scurrying in the violin part. Two speeds occur alternately three times, but on its third appearance the fast music takes off in furious perpetual motion. At the climax, references to the slow music come back but are now absorbed into the fast tempo. The work then races to an abrupt conclusion.
This work was composed for Oliver Lewis during the summer of 1997. It was commissioned by him for several performances throughout the UK during 1998, with financial assistance from the Arts Council of England. John Pickard
Duration 12 minutes
