Programme Notes

In a lot of my work, I feel myself being drawn back to the visual inspiration of my home county: East Sussex. The sweeping slopes of the South Downs, woodlands, and the feeling of coming home (at least for me).

In this piece, I do admit that this is a slightly romanticised outlook on my home county, if not pastoral. It starts gently before moving into a broad vista, followed by a much faster tempo - in my mind, during this section, I recall flying over the Ouse valley and seeing the landscapes that I knew so well from a brand new perspective. To provide a sense of location in this work, I have included a much ornamented adaptation of the tune "The Ploughshare", taken from Bob Copper's recollection of the melody in his book "A Song for Every Season". Following that, a brief recollection of the opening vista occurs before the piece moves swiftly on to its climax. After that, I chose to calm the picture down using the low strings and cor anglais before the piece finishes.

I decided on the title "Of Hills and Ploughshares" after thinking about what landscape of East Sussex I was trying to convey, and also quoting the folk-tune I have included in this piece.