Carved Forms
(for flute and accordion)

I      Pierced Form
II     Two Forms (IIa & IIb)
III    Single Form (with Strings)
IV    Curved Form with Inner Form (Madonna and Child)
V     Sea Form

These five short pieces were inspired by the sculptures of Barbara Hepworth, and the title Carved Forms refers to her preference for carving sculpture rather than moulding it. The titles for the movements reflect those she herself employed and refer to the musical analogies or equivalents used in each piece. The pierced form of the first movement is reflected in how pitch emerges from, and eventually cuts through, the air sounds produced by both instruments. The two forms of the second piece refer not only to its two short separate movements, but also to the fact that each movement consists of a superimposition of two movements, while the third movement was inspired by Hepworth’s landscape sculptures in which the use of strings was designed to convey tension. The fourth movement is the most biographical, its elegiac, lament-like outer sections conveying the sense of loss she felt when her son Paul was killed in an aircraft accident in 1953, while the middle section was inspired by the Madonna and Child sculpture she carved in his memory which is situated in the Parish Church in St. Ives. The final movement is not only constructed as a series of waves, but also references aspects of other movements including, at the end, a brief recapitulation of the air sounds with which movement 1 began. This is designed to reflect Hepworth’s idea of a “closed curve in time”, which was not a title she used for any sculpture, but which was a description given to her general sculptural aesthetic.

Carved Forms was commissioned by Will Sleath (flutes) and Miloš Milivojević (accordion) with funds from the Britten-Pears Foundation. The premiere took place at The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall on 28 April 2017.

Philip Grange