Photo: Chris Donaldson
Every year, I give a new piece to my dear friends the Acacia Quartet, and I am always moved by their playing of it, and how they surprise me in finding things I didn’t know were there.
This year, I wanted them to have something unlike the complex pieces I usually give them. This time, it’s a short piece, an intense burst of energy, built from the simplest materials, a primal idea spun into something modern.
The name ‘virelai’ comes from the medieval poem with a repeating structure, something so old it sounds new.
Acacia are playing Virelai many times in its NSW tour during July and August 2019. Details here.
