Quirk No.1 ‘Show me those Jazz Hands’ (2001)

for flute and clarinet (a), or violin and cello (b), or flute and guitar (c), or violin duo (d).

Duration: 3 mins.

Quirk No.1 (a) for flute and clarinet.
Premiered by Concorde (Madeline Staunton (flute) and Paul Roe (clarinet). Goethe Institute, Dublin, December 2001.

Quirk No.1 (b) for violin and cello.
Premiered by Michael Jorgensen (violin) and Adrianne Winninsky (cello). Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, May 2004.

Recording of Quirk No.1 (b) released on the album Full Circle – Music from the Guildhall (2003-2004).

Quirk No.1 was the first piece of mine to receive a professional performance when Concorde premiered it in 2001.
The premiere occurred very shortly after my mother Joan passed away. The first version was for flute and clarinet.

I re-arranged it in 2004 for violin and cello for members of an ensemble I started up at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where I did my Masters in Composition.

I’ve since arranged versions for flute and guitar. and violin duo. As a piece with two single line melodies throughout, it’s very flexible as to what instruments it could work on. Since there are no particular instrumental effects in the piece, I’m open to it being played on any instruments that can play the melodies!

The MIDI version of this piece was the last piece of music of mine that my mother heard. When she heard it she said it sounded to her like a butterfly and a bee dancing in the air above the traffic.

I’ll leave that image as the programme note for this piece in her memory.

RIP Joan Jennings.