Music archive entry

This work was written in response to the exhibition at the Royal Academy - Aztecs. The artefacts were stunning and it was very difficult to believe that they were 500 or more years old. Some of the pottery seemed so contemporary to me. And yet amongst this advanced civilisation there was the horror of regular ritual sacrifice. I found this juxtaposition sad, but stimulating and I found myself threading musical ideas of both beauty and struggle together. Both rhythmic and melodic in nature with shifting broken tonalities and being played by a broken consort seemed a suitable response.