I wrote ‘Elegy for Piano’ in 2018, for the Local and Live Piano Festival in Stourbridge, West Midlands. The theme of the concert was to commemorate the end of World War One, and it featured music by composers who served in the trenches, and other related pieces. My Elegy was intended as a small memorial to those who lost their lives in the ‘Great War’, although it could be played equally well on its own, or as a part of other occasions for reflection.

The music has a calm, modal feel, slightly tinged with sadness and regret, as if it is looking back on the lives of the soldiers before the conflict, and the middle section brings an additional momentary note of optimism. There is then a gentle cadenza leading the music back to the opening ideas, before the images fade away into the distance of a century ago, and the piece ends on a low, open chord.