Hiraeth (Piano Trio)

This piece is based around the simple opposition of two highly contrasted ideas which alternate during the piece.  The first is fast and aggressive from the outset and becomes subject to various processes of distortion, fragmentation and deconstruction; the second is slow and soft, growing organically from a single note into the plaintive lament which makes up the extended coda section.

Hiraeth is a Welsh word for which there is no direct English equivalent, but it suggests a sense of longing or loss for a person, place or time which no longer exists, or perhaps never existed at all.

Hiraeth was composed in the Autumn of 2015 for a first performance to be given by the Albany Piano Trio during the Late Music concert series in 2016.