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• Genre: Instrumental
• Date of Composition: 2004
• Piece Duration: 7
• Publisher: Novello

Serenata Notturna was originally written, to a private commission in 1998, for violin and piano. In that version it received its first public performance from Helena Smart (violin) with Caroline Jaya-Ratnam (piano), both then students at the RNCM, at the String Final of BBC Young Musicians 2000.

As the title suggests, my Serenata Notturna evokes the atmosphere of night music. Following a reflective opening, where the pitch development outlines a twelve-note series, the music gradually becomes more agitated, developing into a kind of danse macabre, which eventually reaches a powerful climax. The music then subsides into a much more tranquil atmosphere and the previous dissonant material transposes itself into a simple melody (like a lullaby), uttered by the violin, the outline of which, both melodically and in terms of the accompaniment figuration, has already been present in the piece from the beginning. Thus the turmoil of the first part of the work becomes transfigured into something much more peaceful - hence the quotation at the beginning of the score: out of darkness cometh light.

Edward Gregson

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