Fantasy Sonata (DSIML) (2007)
for violin, piano and optional video
Dedicated to Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea
Commissioned by SAMRO Endowment for the National Arts
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score BDE 1016 and part BDE 1016a
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Duration: c. 14'30"

Live Recording
Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea
https://soundcloud.com/ichaellake/fantasy-sonata-for-violin-and-piano-driving-slowly-in-the-middle-lane

Première

First performance: Wednesday 8 November 2023; Vestry Hall, University of West London; Darragh Morgan violin, Mary Dullea piano.
Further performance: 9 November 2023; Royal Holloway College, University of London; Darragh Morgan violin, Mary Dullea piano

Programme note

After the initial performances of Do you prefer red or white? Darragh Morgan suggested a new work inspired by the peculiarly South African practice of driving slowly in the middle lane of the motorway and becoming a hazard in the process. The plan of the work was mapped from my daily route on the M1/N1 between Johannesburg and Pretoria, when I was teaching at the University of South Africa from 2007-2009. Key landmarks on the route informed changes of direction in the piece. Much of the piece is soft and dream-like, as if the players are sleepwalking - the violin often playing glacial harmonics, the piano liquid semiquaver passages in the high register - interrupted by disjunct 'Cecil Taylor-like moments'. Fantasy Sonata (DSIML) was commissioned by SAMRO Endowment for the National Arts for Darragh Morgan and Mary Dullea. 

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