Edward McGuire: Prelude 3 for solo flute [download]

This prelude is part of a set of 24 preludes for various instruments which enabled me to learn about and explore their soul and write for them idiomatically. I began with a cello prelude in 1975 and completed the set in 2015. It was in 1965 and 1966 that I studied flute at the RSAMD Junior Department with David Nicholson and I dedicated this piece to him when I completed it in 1985.

It follows one of my favourite forms - starting growing like a seed at the beginning, flowering and decaying at the end: an organic development. Midway there is a brief sense of dance and various emotions. But in the main it is a concise, energetic piece with the unusual features of harmonics at the start and a short burst of multiphonics and glissandos as the music fades. I see it fitting in to the French tradition of short flute solos by composers such as Debussy, Honneger and Varèse.

GLASGOW HERALD: “coloured by roulades and undulating expressive figures with a fascinating study of harmonics over the closing bars.”