Oliver Knussen

Elegiac Arabesques (In memory of Andrzej Panufnik)

This short piece, a little over three minutes long, was written in response to Nicholas Daniel’s request for something to commemorate this teacher Janet Craxton, whom I had known since childhood and for whom I wrote my Oboe Cantata. Just as I was wondering how to begin I heard that Andrzej Panufnik, whose music and personality I admired a lot, had died. I began to sketch a melody for Cor Anglais, which quickly sprouted a canonic part for clarinet (Joy Farrall – Mrs. Daniel). Some months later, this in turn sprouted the final movement of my octet Songs Without Voices – which so transformed the character of the original that I decided to let the duo stand intact as a separate piece.
Oliver Knussen