Inverted Cathedrals
for String Quartet (2022)
An image that keeps lingering in my mind after my past visits to Lake District and Snowdonia is the vastness of slate mines and quarries, particularly the Dinorwic quarry. The impact of resourcing has continuously influenced many of my musical works. Slate keeps our homes dry, carries our food, paves our walkways or reminds us of our loved ones. The by-product of our utilisation takes shape of what I would like to call an inverted cathedral, in an allusion to John Ruskin’s words. One is surrounded by soaring stone walls and a sheer space with reverberant acoustics. Musical aspects of this work are inspired by real places in the Lake District- flooded tunnels of the Hodge Close Quarry, the Yew Crag incline in Honister, the airy acoustics of the Cathedral Cave or the terraces of the Elterwater Quarry. Music is also subjectively responding to the work of Julian Cooper, a Lakeland painter- his landscapes are related to the aforementioned places and have a unifying element of a rocky grey colour- conveyed by the recurrence of motives and harmonies. An underlining acoustic theme throughout the quartet is a sound that is supposed to revive a stone-chipping soundscape of a Slate tile workshop.
Premiered by the Waldstein Quartet at Lake District Summer Music Festival 2022, Kendall Town Hall, Cumbria, UK
With thanks to Steve Threlfall, Nic Pendlebury and Dominic Murcott
Special thanks to Cecilia McDowall for valuable ideas during the workshop and for the engaging introduction of this piece at the premiere
