In 1984 I set William Soutar’s love poem The Tryst to music in the style of an old Scottish ballad. This I sang in folk clubs and bars around Scotland with my old folk group Broadstone. The composition and performances of this song made a lasting impression on me as it felt as if I had tapped into a deep reservoir of shared tradition as my setting was quite faithful to the old ballad style.
Four years later I started developing this music into something else. In After The Tryst I elongated and ornamented the original melody into a virtuosic and highly expressive miniature for violin with piano accompaniment (later arranged for saxophone and piano). The original harmonic outline is still adhered to and emphasized by the most simple series of arpeggiated chords on the piano. This work was the initial sketch for Búsqueda and Tryst.
James MacMillan
Reproduction Rights
This programme note can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with a credit to the composer
