Score and parts available for hire

I wrote this short piece after a visit to the Fleming Collection exhibition.  I normally tend to like big, bold and colourful paintings and music but was really struck when I saw Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Butterfly Flower.  What really appeals to me about this watercolour sketch is its quirky flatness, the blatantly overlapping stems and the slightly unnatural way that the flower heads face you.

I tried to explore this in my piece by giving distinct musical identities to the individual instruments; defining them with material which sometimes refuse to develop or fit with the other elements.  I tried to think about different kinds of layering and how I could combine really contrasting elements without breaking a general mood of slightly disjointed unease.

Although the title of the painting was butterfly flower, I think as a title it made my piece sound slightly too girly so I’ve called it fringeflower which is another name for the same plant. 

© Anna Meredith