Tracing (2025)

When Fenella Humphreys approached me about writing a piece for violin and piano, she had an image in her head: a painting by her artist father, which she had always loved as a child. Could I base the piece on this? However, on trying to find the original painting, she drew a blank. None of the family knew where it was, and Fenella started to trawl her memory for the image – sending me descriptions and even her own pencil sketches, to try and conjure up the beloved picture. But, as she said, every time she tried to get close to the memory, it disappeared further…

The idea of memory has fed into the music, as well as Fenella’s descriptions of the painting: a winter night scene, with a gnarled tree, a moon, a church – possibly clouds. It might have been in ink, with cross-hatching.

The first movement (‘Ink’) is childlike and simple – a distant memory. It suggests the process of trying to pin down a half-remembered image.  

The second movement (Silhouette’) refers to the silhouette of a gnarled tree: stark, but strong and positive. I have used a passacaglia, beginning on piano, with six repetitions. A recurring pattern of falling fifths suggests a child and a violin.

The third movement (‘Moon Shadows’) depicts clouds scudding across a moon ‘that might have been red, or yellow, or white’. The uncertainty of memory, the moonlight, and the transcience of the image pervade the music.

Fenella’s playing, and also Martin’s, were important factors in the piece – I have written for both of them before, and could hear their sound as the piece took shape. I wanted to draw on their expressive qualities, but also to create a child-like simplicity.

Commissioned by Fenella Humphreys, with support from Wigmore Hall, Vaughan Williams Foundation and the Fidelio Charitable Trust

First performed on 16 October 2025 by Fenella Humphreys (violin) and Martin Roscoe (piano) at the Wigmore Hall, London

Sally Beamish, 2025