In the early stages of composing “Imagine”, I was hesitant to incorporate text. Something that I love about music is that even though what ever I create may be drawn from a distinct inspiration, the audience and performers are welcome to interpret the sounds in their own capacity. This is why the text used throughout the piece is very limited, and sometimes indistinct.

The little text that is used, other than the title, is taken from “Music” by poet Amy Lowell who is most famous from the Imagist movement. This is described as poetry with very clear and concise use of language and imagery, and “a succession of creative moments” which I feel is very fitting to this piece.

The piece goes through different phases, taking advantage of the instruments as both individuals and as an ensemble, particularly through an exploration of motion versus stasis. I encourage you to let your mind wander through the musical realm and see what you can imagine.

Imagine (2023)

Conflict (2017)

For violin and fixed media
Based on the Scottish traditional tune of the same name
Performed by Ruairish Geddes (violin), September 2020

'Though hurricanes rise and rise ev'ry wind,
They'll ne'er make a tempest like that in my mind'
	- Allan Ramsey, 1724

'As my melancholy came by degrees, so it wore off by degrees, and as my dark Melancholy bodily distempers abated, so did my spiritual Maladies also, and God convinced me by degrees; that all this was from Satan, his delusions and temptations, working in those dark and black humors, and not from my self, and this God cleared up to me more and more'
	- Hannah Allen, 1683

''Tis too late to be ambitious. The great mutations of the world are acted, or time may be too short for our designes.'
	- Thomas Browne, 1658

'The pain of melancholy could in this sense be interpreted as a sign of the believer's devoutness'
	- Emily Betz, 2020

Lochaber no more was written for the Explorathon Festival in a joint project between RCS and St. Andrews University. It was written in collaboration with Emily Betz, a PhD candidate researching the history of melancholy in Britain, 1580-1780.

The initial tune comes from Farewell to Lochaber, a Scottish traditional tune. We found it in 'The Merry Musician; or, A Cure for the Spleen: A collection of the most diverting songs and pleasant ballads set to the violin and flute, adapted to every taste and humour', published by Walsh, Hare, Bettesworth and Brown, 1716. This tune is in turn thought to be based on Limerick's Lamentation, by 17th century Irish harper Myles O'Reilly, although 'provenance is claimed by both Ireland and Scotland'.

Imagine (2023)

Erin Thomson

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