Sunroving

lute concerto (timp / 2xperc / harp / solo lute / strings)

2026

duration: 12'

written for Felix Collins, and is dedicated to my teacher Deirdre Gribbin.

Sunroving imagines the presence of sunlight as a god-like one, towering but gentle in its arrival. Taking inspiration from American Realist painter Edward Hopper’s (1882-1967) Sunlight in an Empty Room, it fills spaces with life through ever-chasing, and ever-cycling material. I look at this material like light through iron fences, doilies, abandoned structures. Also as light seen on the floor through trees, frosted windows, and my fingers; shifting and changing, rigid and burning, free and gliding.

This piece utilises two transcriptions. The first is a resampled recording of Felix playing Dowland’s Preludium. In capturing Felix’s playing and its nuances, I first fill this piece with his presence. The second transcription is of three recordings of bells. Bells represent here reflects the ever-presence of sunlight in its tolling, calling nature. These transcriptions and their material are superimposed on one another throughout the piece, transforming through their own and each other’s material.