‘Sortilège’ meaning ‘a foretelling by divination’, is a piece loosely inspired by the Witches Prison in St Osyth in Essex (known as ‘the Cage’), where many women accused of practising witchcraft were imprisoned from 1582 to as late as 1908. The opening is eerie and quaint with little melodies strewn over an ambiguous milieu of Harp and Strings. Echoes and tonal fragments punctuate the elusive sound-world, ruminating and reminiscing. The material shifts and changes and the tension gradually builds as glimmers of visions are captured. The central section settles into a trance like state with tender melodies layered together, calm before an intense chromatic escalation that precedes larger tutti chords as the unknown is foretold. Subsequently, the music drops dramatically and the previous ambiguity and obscurity returns with tenuous tremors in the Vibraphone. Gradually the piece diminishes away ending on one final note.

This project led to a commission from Tŷ Cerdd to write a solo guitar piece to be performed by guitarist Sean Shibe. The finished piece is called ‘The Shadowman’ which you can discover more about by clicking the link below.