William Sweeney: mar ròs a chaill..... [download]

For solo string instrument. Versions for violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Computer typeset scores (3p each) in .pdf format available for immediate download.

One of a collection of 200 solo pieces commissioned to celebrate the bicentenary of the Royal Academy of Music in 2022

This work is a re-imagining, for solo instrument, of the last number from my opera An Turus (The Journey) to a libretto in Scots Gaelic by my friend, poet and long-time collaborator Aonghas MacNeacail. It is pronounced, roughly, and in English orthography as "mar raws a chall" (ch as in loch!).

The whole line which the title is taken from translates as "as a rose which has lost its roots", referring to the operatic character of Diarmid, who, like Orpheus, has descended to the underworld to retrieve Grainne, but "looks back", loses her and is himself destroyed (in this re-telling, by a street gang).