Boosey & Hawkes
My Canon For Two Violas was written in 2022 for Scott Dickinson and Andrew Berridge. It is a short five-minute work entirely constructed on a simple canonic design. The first player begins with a reflective “cantabile” theme in the low register. It has a folk-like, Scottish character, full of ornaments which punctuate a sad melodic line, lasting four bars.
Immediately the second player takes it up while the first moves on to a contrasting counterpoint, adding not just a new melody but a suggestion of an harmonic context which is always shifting. This is the pattern of the unfolding piece where every new phrase spins the music forward into ever-evolving development. Each new line changes the mood and expression. The phrases become more animated and rise in tessitura. The expressive markings are specific and descriptive - dolce, yearning, intense, semplice, obsessive, strepitoso, lamentoso and finally cantabile again.
The music returns to its original statement and fades away to nothing.
James MacMillan - 2026