• Simon Holt
  • Migas Book 1 (2012)

  • Chester Music Ltd (World)

'The Night of the Blood Red Moon' was commissioned by Southbank Centre

  • piano
  • 25 min

Programme Note

1] a postcard piece
2] the night of the blood red moon
3] ashes, ashes
4] Four Humours
5] a long cast shadow
6] for L.C. at 50
7] toy
8] moonviewing
9] pink sugar skull
10] Mab
11] skull redux

'Migas' is a collection of 11 brief piano pieces, written over a period of some 33 years for the pianists Rolf Hind and Andrew Zolinsky. It has become an ongoing series of which this is the first book and will continue until my death. They are essentially occasional pieces beginning with 'a postcard piece'; written in 1979 to fit on a postcard, which was sent to my tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music, Tony Gilbert, to greet him when he arrived back from a sabbatical in Australia. 'the night of the blood red moon' was written for a concert of solo piano pieces to celebrate the occasion of Pierre Boulez's 75th birthday in 2000. Rolf Hind was the soloist. There was a lunar eclipse on the night I wrote it, which was apparently blood red (although where I was at the time, it was too cloudy to see it). 'Ashes, ashes' was written for Rolf Hind in 2004, as a 40th birthday present and uses material excised from an earlier piece, 'all fall down' (1994). I wrote 'Four Humours' for Andrew Zolinsky over 2 days in 2005. The piece comprises four brief studies on the four chief fluids of the body that were thought to determine a person's physical and mental qualities: enojo, flema, melancolico and sangre. 'A long cast shadow' was written as an interruption to a piece now lost. The final 6 pieces are a 50th birthday piece in 3 sections for Laurence Crane, written in 2011. 'toy', also written in 2011 is a 77th birthday present for Tony Gilbert. 'moonviewing' was completed a day or so later and is a birthday present for my sister. This was also written on a blood red lunar eclipse. 'Pink sugar skull' is a present for Morgan Hayes, written in 2012, as was 'Mab', written for the Hell of it and, following swiftly, 'Skull Redux' to round off the set. The whole piece should last about 25'.

S.H.
26th July 2013