Judith Weir

This piece is a string trio version of Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album (1984) for clarinet and piano. The three movements Salute: Nocturne: (in this case a fast, nervous march), and Lament form a very short instrumental opera based on the life of James Reid, a bagpiper in Prince Jacobite army, who was captured by the English in 1746 and executed after a judge had classified the bagpipes as a weapon. the melodies were built out of the basic intervals of Scottish pipe tune and in the original version the pieces each use a distinct part of the clarinet's register, with the piano serving to reinforce and modulate the melody. In this trio the effect has been preserved by "featuring" a different instrument in each movement with the other two acting as accompanist.

Sketches from a Bagpiper's Album was first performed by the string players of Domus, in Cambridge in 1985.

© Judith Weir