Portrait of Blood (2022)
for mezzo-soprano and string quartet // 5'
commissioned by Affinity Quartet
Score and parts are currently under review for publication, but a sample score can be made available on request.
Performance history
February 10-18 2020
London tour, including St James' Piccadilly and St Martin-in-the-fields
Lotte Betts-Dean and Affinity Quartet
About
Portrait of Blood is the name of a poem by Peter Bakowski from his book Beneath Our Armour (2009) and is the text sung in this work. This piece is one of Peter's longer poems in this book, but it is characteristically incredibly distilled and evocative. Written in the 2nd person, it is a delightful portrait of blood in all its forms and flows, as a source of life with its connotations of violence and I thought it ideal to set for string quartet with mezzo-soprano.
My gratitude to Lotte Betts-Dean and Affinity Quartet for commissioning and performing this work as part of their 2020 European tour, and to my friend and former Thomas' Music colleague Peter for permitting me to set this text without a moment of hesitation!