The Holloway
for Orchestra
Duration: 9”30’
Commissioned by the Oxford Symphony Orchestra (Oxford's leading non-professional large symphony orchestra)
‘Holloway - the hollow way. A sunken path, a deep & shady lane. A route that centuries of foot-fall, hoof-hit, wheel-roll & rain-run have harrowed into the land. A track worn down by the traffic of ages & the fretting of water.....ways that still connect place to place & person to person'.
Extract from 'Holloway' by Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood and Dan Richards, p. 3 (Quive-Smith Editions in 2012, Faber & Faber, London, 2013).
I was inspired to write this piece after reading Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood and Dan Richard’s book, ‘Holloway’. Following a late summer walk along an Oxfordshire holloway, I began to focus on the words above. I feel they encapsulate what I hope to evoke through the music - the power of time connecting with place along a trackway well-travelled. I am hugely grateful that the authors of the book have given me permission to include the above extract in the score and programme note.
The Holloway was commissioned by the Oxford Symphony Orchestra and was premiered by Robert Max and the orchestra on June 22nd 2024 at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.