Welkin

This is the first of three orchestral 'tone-poems' reflecting on my time as a Londoner living in the north-west of England, having now happily spent more than half my life here. In 1970, when Granada Arts-Fellow at Lancaster University, I noticed how much cleaner & clearer the skies were, and first experienced the magic of the Northern Lights, from a high hilltop in the area.
This is what sowed the seeds of Welkin.

The music attempts to create a sense of flexible stasis, of still movement. There are three main sections, with very little change or difference between them, as they're all variations on the opening bars. Gentle climaxes there are, and resolutions, reflecting on the way the distant light changes, but the overall concern is with texture and colour. This conveys what I still feel, in response to what I see.

Anthony Gilbert, 2020