Wanting Not Wanting
© By Stephen Gardner
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Stephen Gardner’s Wanting Not Wanting, commissioned by the BBC for a St Patrick’s Day concert with the Ulster Orchestra in 1992, used a “very loosely based impression of the Irish air, Snaidhm an Ghrá (The True Lover’s Knot)”.
Gardner expanded on the music’s background in a revised programme note for a performance at the Sonorities Festival in 1995.
“[There had been] two utterly senseless acts of mass murder at Teebane [January 1992] and in a bookies’ on the Ormeau Road [February 1992]. These tragedies had a profound effect on the mood of the music. There is a constant struggle for light to shine through. An Ulster Processional, which provides the climax, has a beacon of light in the high trumpet solo, though it is still tinged with sorrow. The work ends reflectively. Wanting, Not Wanting is dedicated to those who pointlessly lost their lives during the conflict.”
Stephen Gardner
Recording courtesy of the composer and the Contemporary Music Centre