For Sonny

This is a little miniature for string quartet written in memory of a little boy, the grandson of a friend, who died a few days after his birth.


Throughout, the first violin plays a simple fragment, like a nursery rhyme, repeating over and over again, pizzicato. The other instruments provide an ever-changing context for this little tune, sometimes accompanying it with easy harmonies, sometimes straying into stranger territory.


James MacMillan


Reproduction Rights
This programme note can be reproduced free of charge in concert programmes with a credit to the composer