Here Everything Shines

Here Everything Shines by Charlotte Bray for flute and guitar.

Commissioned by Tom Kerstens for the International Guitar Foundation and first performed on 24 July 2015 at the IGF Guitar Summit by Flauguissimo Duo: Yu-Wei Hu (flute) and Johan Löfving (guitar). 

Programme Notes

Here Everything Shines is largely inspired by Cesaria Evora's Petit Pays sung in Cape Verdean Portuguese. The melody is quoted in the flute part and is intended to be performed as freely as it is in Evora's voice. The title comes from the translation of the line 'ki ca ta brilha' an idea which resonates throughout.

A gritty and impassioned fast section opens the piece, the non-stop line dashing around being punctuated by stabbing chords. The intensity grows until a lush slow section takes over, the flute singing vibrantly over an arpeggiated figure. Similar material to the opening then returns in an extended version with the guitar taking on the fast energetic figure and the flute interrupting. The pace slows and notes glimmer as if caught by rays of sun bouncing off the ocean in the expressive quiet section that follows. Evora's melody is then heard, poignant and free. Abruptly, the opening material intervenes one final time, with the lively melodic line heard once again in the flute part, the accompanying voice seemingly edging it on.

• Charlotte Bray

Duration: 8 minutes