Broken Line (2015)
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 6: No 9
Dedicated to Renée Reznek
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1286 (Volume 6 Complete)
Duration: 5'30"
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374, 2021)
Recorded by Renée Reznek on 'From My Beloved Country' (Prima Facie Records B06XSDDV5T, 2017)
Première
First performance: 1 June 2016; Parish Church of St John at Hampstead, London;
Renée Reznek piano
Further performance: 21 August 2021; Le Genesteix Concerts, Azat-le-Riz, France; Antony Gray piano (French première)
Programme note
Broken Line is an essay in monody; the constant chordal elements simply propel the linear design. The overall image is of a line that proceeds despite all attempts to overwrite, divert or break it. It’s like those early Kandinskian lines that survive storms, cannons, knights on horses and crumbling castles. It is music with ragged edges and a silent core, a searching for inner silence. The enormous challenge to the performer is to identify that line and sustain it.
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 6: No 9
Dedicated to Renée Reznek
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1286 (Volume 6 Complete)
Duration: 5'30"
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374, 2021)
Recorded by Renée Reznek on 'From My Beloved Country' (Prima Facie Records B06XSDDV5T, 2017)
Première
First performance: 1 June 2016; Parish Church of St John at Hampstead, London;
Renée Reznek piano
Further performance: 21 August 2021; Le Genesteix Concerts, Azat-le-Riz, France; Antony Gray piano (French première)
Programme note
Broken Line is an essay in monody; the constant chordal elements simply propel the linear design. The overall image is of a line that proceeds despite all attempts to overwrite, divert or break it. It’s like those early Kandinskian lines that survive storms, cannons, knights on horses and crumbling castles. It is music with ragged edges and a silent core, a searching for inner silence. The enormous challenge to the performer is to identify that line and sustain it.
