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- Judith Weir
Turkish(ish) March (2018)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Commissioned by The Royal Society of Musicians and first performed by the Shanghai String Quartet at Wigmore Hall, London, on 1st February 2019.
Programme Note
The Royal Society of Musicians is Britain's oldest musical charity (founded 1738). Over the years, notable composers, including Haydn and Weber, have contributed Marches to be performed at the Society’s charitable events. The tradition continues to this day.
The tune of my March reconstructs a very distantly remembered melody which I learned from an old LP (long mislaid) of folk music from the Balkans. My memory – again distant – is that it comes from a Serbian ballad about a battle with the Turkish army. I do recall its strangely swift tempo (reproduced in this version for String Quartet); suggesting that one or other of these armies had to make a quick getaway.
Judith Weir, 2019