Cello, pisaw, electronics: Stuart Jones
Human voice: Louis Cole Roberts (age 4days)
Birds: Nightingale, blackbird

Dedicated to Louis Cole Roberts and his parents Chi Roberts and Tim Cole

given - taken emerged from a long period of collaboration and research with choreographer Emilyn Claid. This started with workshops at the Place, from which the central pisaw (free reed Thai flute) tune dates. This was followed by the first of a trilogy of pieces by Emilyn, in which the chords heard at the opening, in the middle and at the end were used as the basis for the music. A version of given - taken was used in 2003 as the music for the third part of the trilogy, Remember to Forget. Unusually in my work for dance, the music was through-composed as a piece in its own right and Emilyn choreographed to it. I later revised it and this is the version which now stands. It will shortly be available as a CD on divers music. The piece is all based on reflections - the dominant cello tune (derived from the nightingale song also heard throughout the piece) appears in its original form, but also in retrograde, inversion and retrograde inversion; the chords at the opening, middle and end are palindromic, and the whole piece has a palindromic structure, with sections reflecting each other across the central section.

given - taken has now been released on CD with a beautiful cover designed by Damien Borowik (who designed this site). It is available to buy for £10.00 by emailing me sjones@wawamoz.com

this is only the front of a digipack!