Still Life- for piano, alto saxophone and harp

By

Michelle Velvin

Still Life - trio for alto saxophone, piano and harp (2021)

Michelle Velvin

Still Life for alto saxophone, piano and harp is based upon the poem Still Life by Genevieve Davidson. The piano and harp intertwining emotes cloud banks at the front of a storm, whilst the saxophone represents the old smooth sliding banks of the stone river. The deep water sunlight below the kelp is heard in the undulating pulses in the piano and harp in the middle section of the work: imagine looking upwards from under the sea at the dappled light refracting on the surface of the water.

Still Life

A grey velveteen sky.

This is where we met, chestnuts on the green picnic bench.

In Autumn, the air clasped sharpley beneath the bone branches of the silver birch.

We watch the old smooth sliding banks of the stone river reflect the lowering night.

In Spring, all shaded in dark greens, I love you through the beech tree sepia, beneath the deep kelp water sunlight.

The inner paintings within the movements of life.

We rest together, you and I.

A still life in our frame.