CAYR Charity: Retford

The piece grew out of the shared themes that emerged during the Retford workshop; Memories of an agricultural upbringing, the familiar presence of the local windmill, the newer silhouettes of renewable wind turbines, and, above all, a deep sense of being rooted in the town all seemed to echo through the stories that were shared.

After this workshop I was left with a particular feeling that seemed to hang in the air, distinct from my experiences in other places - a heaviness perhaps. Alongside this, there was a profound sense of stillness: of waiting, remembering and remaining connected to a place that carries so much personal and collective history.

The music draws on the minimalist composers of the 1960s, whose repeating patterns and gradually shifting rhythms offered a way of capturing these ideas. The four blades of the old windmill and the three blades of a modern turbine set up an interplay of rhythms, their cycles repeatedly crossing and falling apart before beginning again. The persistent ostinati suggest the passing of time, but also the feeling of waiting — of being held within a moment that seems to resist moving forward.

Against this mechanical pulse, the string quintet brings another landscape into view. Its rich, sustained sonorities are drawn from the rolling farmland surrounding Retford: the soft contours of the hills, the openness of the fields and the deep greens of the countryside.

As the piece unfolds, these elements gradually give way to a richer and more expansive harmonic language. What begins as repetition and stillness slowly gathers momentum, the harmony drawing the music forward towards a climax. From this point of greatest intensity, the music settles without resolution - not an ending, but an arrival somewhere else.