Ricercare una melodia

Ricercare means literally ‘to seek’, and in musical usage it signifies a fugal, often strict movement. Here, a five-part canon is obtained by means of a tape-delay system, and when the ‘sought-after’ melody is ‘found’, the canon is by progressive augmentation and at the interval of the octave.

Ricercare una melodia was commissioned by the Park Lane Group and written for Jonathan Impett (trumpet) and John Whiting (sound projection), who gave the first performance at the Purcell Room, London, on 10 January 1985.

Viola Paul Silverthorne

This film was recorded as part of the London Sinfonietta’s Turning Points: Sound Unwrapped concert on 24 June 2023 at Kings Place