Description
Instrumentation: viola solo
Edition: score
Year: 1974
Difficulty: medium to difficult
The piece was written in 1974 for James Durrant and first performed by him at
the Henry Wood Hall in Glasgow on 15th May, 1982.
Circe was written as a response to Stuart Montgomery’s retelling of the meeting of Odysseus with the enchantress Circe. He writes of her as a beautiful, cruel yet lonely seductress. In purely musical terms the piece explores the viola both melodically and harmonically. It begins in a lyrical vein with implied two-part counterpoint in its widely arching melodies. In this respect it is in the tradition of Bach’s unaccompanied string suites.
