Anthony Gilbert

Monsoon Toccata

Monsoon Toccata by Anthony Gilbert. 3'33'; for solo piano. In memoriam Janet Owen Thomas (1961-2002).

'In 1988, Janet Owen Thomas met up with me in Sydney at the end of a short organ-recital tour - possibly her last before devoting herself entirely to composing. We returned to England together, doing a rapid circular tour of Northern India on the way. Alighting from the plane at Delhi we were hit by the whirling wind and torrential rain of the seasonal monsoon, and early the following morning there was also a minor earthquake.

This experience determined the spirit of the music, and Northern Indian Raga determines the purely technical approach, with the quasi-improvisatory toccatalike textures acting as decoration to a slow-moving, widely-spaced modal top line which almost loses control of the overall shape at the mid-point - a reflection of the impact of those natural phenomena.

'
A. G.