The Sun Was Chasing Venus

The Sun was Chasing Venus for String Quintet by Charlotte Bray

Commissioned by the Savannah Music Festival and first performed on 3 April 2014 at the Savannah Music Festival, Georgia, USA by The Dover Quartet with Daniel Lee (viola)

Programme Notes

Driven with frenetic energy, The Sun was Chasing Venus is through-composed, vividly moving between contrasting sections. A slower, hazy episode featuring the violas in an expressive dialogue gives way to a violin solo with sparse, rhythmic accompaniment. Brisk music returns in a playful, excitable section, before a cadenza-like cello solo. The piece takes its shape from the concept of ascending, the music always rising. The title, an abstract description of the work, represents the idea of a game of pursuit; musical lines chasing each other, out of which comes a sense of journey. © Charlotte Bray

Duration: 14 minutes