Caught Breath of Time (1981)

Our Description

Composer's Notes

The phrase "...caught breath of time..." occurs in the magisterial novel Earthwind by Robert Holdstock who more recently incorporated the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams into another book, Lavondyss, sequel to his award winning Mythago Wood. In all these books Holdstock presents a vision of mainfested archetypes to which I respond deeply - few writers have approached so closely the mythographic potentiality of music.

The piece is about progressive amnesia, the flutist gradually shedding the 'sophistications' of musical decoration. Eventually a stage is reached where the player has "forgotten" all the piece's substance; landmarkless, the listener is drawn in a Brucknerian suspension of sensed time.

Caught Breath of Time was written in 1981 for Nancy Ruffer. While I have since written vastly more complex flute pieces, I retain a lasting affection for this work as a token of my enduring respect for Nancy Ruffer's artistry.

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