Magenta - solo violin

“I composed Magenta at my Grandmother’s beach house in Portsea. I remember being in the upstairs bedroom, the one with the little window that looked out onto the beautiful big front garden. The garden was full of large lopsided sprawling twisted tea-trees, as well as ferns and other lush shaded greenery. As a child I would play all sorts of make believe games in that garden. I felt so peaceful in this room with my violin and the quiet.

As I played my violin, little motifs and intervals that I loved began to emerge and connect into what would become the main theme. The more I played around with this theme the more I wanted to explore the different ways it could be conveyed and the different playing techniques (double stopping, pizzicato, tremolo) that could be used to create variations on the theme. It was such an innocent theme and was such a pleasure to play. It reminded me of the beautiful colour magenta. ”