Playing score 0571511856 on sale. Electronics available from Jonathan Harvey Sound Sources

Ricercare una Melodia was commissioned by the Park Lane Group. Ricercare means literally ‘to seek’, and in musical usage it signifies a fugal, often rather strict, movement. Here, a five-part canon is obtained by means of a tape-delay system, and when the ‘sought-after’ melody is ‘found’, the canon is by progressive augmentation and at the interval of the octave. It was written for Jonathan Impett and John Whiting. First performance given on 10 January 1985 in the Purcell Room, given by Jonathan Impett and the Park Lane Group.