Description
This attractive and evocative recital piece is a sort of tone-poem about a visit to Santiago de Compostella, in north-west Spain, best described by the composer himself:
‘My piece begins at Mountjoy the highest point before reaching the city when it all lies before you for the first time. This is emphasised by rising block chords flowed by ecstatic rushing scales. Next comes the Pilgrim Hymn, which I now know is called –‘Els Cants deis Romieus’ and which I heard played on a Galician bagpipe outside on the square of the Obradoiro in June this year. Soon after comes, first using its final bars and then the complete 12th Century hymn ‘Angelorum in curia’ and then the complete ‘Nostra phalans plaudit leta’ found in the huge manuscript known as the Codex Calixticus. The rest of the piece develops and juxtaposes these melodies and various tempi often in irregular rhythms and sometimes out of control in its joy. The piece ends in a flurry of scales.’
