CANZONA
(2024)
Duration: 9′
Description
for solo viola
First performance: 11 June 2025, Sarah-Jane Bradley (viola)/All Saints Church, Hertford, UK
Reviews
“Lloyd Moore joined us for the premiere of his new Canzona, shaped with elegance and expressive nuance by Sarah-Jane Bradley.”
(Go Hertford)
“… in the line of solo viola elegies that stretch back to Britten and Stravinsky (in that order). There is though a fast middle section and a pressing urgency that yet wisps off into a world of fierce tears and very quiet. Then defiant desolation. A trancing very fine addition to the solo viola repertory.”
(Simon Jenner, View From The Gods)
Programme Note
I wrote this piece in the latter part of 2024. It aims to exploit the particular characteristics of the viola, using as a starting point the most basic sound common to all string instruments, the interval of the perfect fifth (produced by playing two open strings together). Although, as the title implies, the work is song-like, it is also a miniature set of variations which gradually increase in speed, reach a climax and then recede via a return to the opening material.
The piece is dedicated to the memory of the composer and writer Bayan Northcott. He very generously dedicated his last completed work to me and this piece, I hope, returns the compliment.