A ‘Quaker Trod’, or alternately a ‘Quaker Causeway’, is a pathway made of stone slabs laid across the moorland of North Yorkshire. There are several Quaker Trods across the North Yorkshire Moors. The origin of these causeways is uncertain, they may have been layed by local Monasteries in the distant past and then subsequently become associated with Quakers who used them for trade and thus maintained and extended them. Whoever made them it is an impressive achievement, the slabs are substantial roughhewn pieces of stone and the moors are certainly an exposed and unforgiving environment to work in.
In a similar way the origin of a piece of music can be obscure, the idea for this piece of music occurred to me back in 2015 after a visit to Commondale, a while later I worked on a theme, forgot about it for a time, took it up again last year and finally completed it last month. So when did I write this piece of music? I suspect the idea of an identifiable origin is sometimes something of a fiction, perhaps even often.
One reason for the long delay was that I got stuck. It was listening to Moeran’s Sonata for Two Violins that made me realise the way forward, I didn’t have to abide by the rules of composition I had adopted – I could just write what sounded right. They weren’t even anyone’s rules, no stern musicologist was waging a finger at me; my own precepts were getting in the way of just listening to the music.
The idea of using two violins was a little fanciful, I thought it might suggests two Quakers walking a Trod together, one of them older and senior, talking as they journey on, at other times just thinking about what they see, or recalling past times - the moors tend to make one reflective. There are moments suggesting hymnody and folk song. Anyway, I quite like the notion.
The two violins are computer generated which makes for accuracy but not humanity.
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