John Maxwell Geddes

Programme Note

Commissioned by Tom Fitzpatrick, the title refers to part of the prehistoric stone circles on the Island of Lewis. Geddes has visited the site on different occasions, and slept beside the megaliths overnight. The music contains elements of a Gaelic psalm and imitates a traditional style of singing which is possibly older than Christianity. The piece elaborates these elements in an improvisatory manner and tries to evoke the timeless quality of Callanish.

'Noreen Fitzpatrick will also be taking to America a new Scottish work Callanish IV by John Maxwell Geddes, which she specially commissioned and premiered from memory on this occasion. This new piece, short and unaccompanied, takes its title from a Neolithic feature on Lewis whose inhabitants' weaved style of psalm singing is reflected in the music, but in a clean and economical form' (Glasgow Herald).