Colour Beginning

for string quartet

Colour Beginning is a short string quartet written in response to JMW Turner's near-abstract preliminary watercolours of Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland. These 'colour beginnings' (some displayed in Tate Britain) set the turbulent sky against an area left entirely blank (for the castle), void of detail. 

The piece was born from a contemplation of these mists of colour set against the stark blank canvas, coupled with my own memories of the unique feel of the area in which I grew up. Stillness is set against the minute motion of sand and grass, silence against the cries of birds and rustling of the dunes.

[ Vln., Vln., Vla., Vc. ]