Suite for Harpsichord

About

This Suite is dedicated to Lou Harrison, the 'Usonian' (and Californian) Composer, who was in New Zealand in 1983 as a Fulbright fellow. He encouraged my interest in writing for the harpsichord, and in modal writing and turnings; he also gave a marvellous African-style performance on the little mbira (thumb-piano) from Cameroon that my wife had given me some years previously. The tuning of this instrument provided a scatter of eight notes oven two octaves; these eight notes form the basis of the modes used throughout the suite. In the second and fourth movements, which are labelled Giuoco meaning play, I have also used the thumb-piano style of alternation hands and kept fairly literally to the instrument's actual pitches. The other three movements oscillate between modes based on C and A throughout. I have tried to avoid mechanical motor-rhythms and to bring out the instrument's expressive and phrasing possibilities.