Judith Weir

Day Break Shadows Flee

Judith Weir's Day Break Shadows Flee for solo Piano. This 10 minute work was commissioned by BBC Radio 3. It was first performed by Benjamin Grosvenor on 1st September 2014, as part of the Proms Chamber Music Series at Cadogan Hall. ' Day Break Shadows Flee, written for Benjamin Grosvenor, is a Two-Part Invention, a Piano solo composition in which the two hands work in close co-ordination but independently. My intention was generally to avoid using thick chords (although octaves and other clear sonorities are included) while allowing both the right and left-hand lines to be free, mobile and expressive. The treble and bass sectors of the keyboard are clearly contrasted and often widely separated. In atmosphere and expression the music is another kind of two-part invention, contrasting bright, upwards-arching phrases (heard at the opening and evoking the arrival of light at the beginning of the day) with veiled, mysterious scurryings, suggesting the stranger, more nervous life lived at night and in the early morning. ' - Judith Weir