"SOUVENIRS d’AVALON"
(Memories of Avalon)

Suite of nine pieces for piano solo with themes
inspired by the characters in the online comic
"Avalon"
by Josh Phillips

Written by Matthew "K.A.H." Smith (b.1979)

This suite is dedicated to - who else? -
the many readers of "Avalon",
especially those who post to
the forum, and most of all
to Josh Phillips
for creating such a deep, engrossing
world of people and their stories.

Cambridge,
1 November 2001.

-Reproduction of the title page of the autograph manuscript.

Acknowledgements

First, I’d like to reiterate the dedication from the title page. Thank you to the forumgoers, especially those who voiced their support for the project, whether this be when I asked if there was any interest in it before starting, when I was a bit unsure if this interest had been a flash in the pan last month, and more recently, when I finished writing the pieces. It’s encouragement such as that that made the project feel worthwhile.

Huge thanks to Anh Minh Nguyen, Chris "Darth Paradox" Battey, and Mattias Wadenstein for donating the webspace to host the MP3s.

Thanks in advance to Darren "Consul" Landrum for lending his technical know-how and to Alex "notRKB" Piltch for lending his pianistic skills to recording a more professional-sounding version of the suite.

Not that they read "Avalon" or indeed any webcomic, but thanks to my parents for always supporting my musical endeavours, both written and performed.

Most of all, thanks to Josh Phillips for writing and drawing "Avalon". Here’s to two years of a truly unique webcomic, and I think I speak for everyone who reads "Avalon" when I say we’re all eager to see what the third and final year brings to our heroes and heroines of AHS! Happy second anniversary!!

Happy listening.

Notes on the pieces (for the musically inclined)

Ouverture.
Grave, quasi tempo libro.

Key: A major
Time signature: 3/4
Duration: 1’39"

The overture to Souvenirs d’Avalon is a short, simple piece, written as a gateway to what follows. Its dreamlike atmosphere is intended to convey the feeling of wonder most of us get while reading "Avalon"; the overture carries us into both the suite of pieces that follows and the world of the characters they describe. To emphasise this, the six phrases "spell out" the letters A-V-A-L-O-N on the staves, and the key, A major, was chosen to coincide with the first letter of the title of the comic.

The primary influences are probably some of Robert Schumann’s earlier piano works, such as sundry movements from the Kinderscenen and the Carnaval.

1. Caprice. (Helène Richer)
Allegro e vivace molto - Poco meno mosso. Espressivo - Tempo I.

Key: C major
Time signature: 3/4
Duration: 2’19"

The primary impression we get of Helène Richer is of a hyperactive, almost ceaselessly cheerful ray of sunshine, and it is only fitting that her character sketch, the first in the suite, should be the most upbeat piece of all. The key is C major, viewed by many as the brightest, most joyous of the twenty-four keys, and the piece itself is flighty and light-hearted.... at least in the first and last sections. There is a contrasting, slower, introspective centre section in the introspective key of E major. I have theorised for some time that perhaps the reason Helène smothers Alan is because she feels ignored; of course, I know from personal experience that if one person feels smothered and the other feels ignored, intensifying the smothering only makes things worse. Nevertheless, I’d hesitate before I labelled Alan and Helène’s relationship as entirely functional! At any rate, the centre section is intended to depict the reflective, insecure side of Helène that may lie just beneath the surface. But the merry side returns in due course, and the caprice ends on a note of unambiguous triumph.

Four pieces heavily influenced the caprice: "Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum", the opening piece from Claude Debussy’s Children’s Corner; the first and seventh études, both in C major, from Douze Grandes Études, Op.10 by Frédéric Chopin; and Prelude and Fugue No.3 in C-sharp major from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I by Johann Sebastian Bach.

2. Rhapsodie. (Alan Gunderson)
Allegro vivo e risoluto - L’istesso tempo ma meno vivo - Allegro vivo come prima, e molto agitato.

Key: D major
Time signature: 3/4
Duration: 2’42"

Alan Gunderson strikes me as a loud, outgoing type - self-confident almost to the point of self-centred, to borrow the description penned by his creator. As such, his piece is the loudest, most outgoing piece in the suite, and is cast in the loudest, most outgoing key: D major. The first half of the piece is as brash and confident as its subject, but at 1’01", we hear Helène in the distance, calling Alan’s name. His confidence and composure disintegrate in an instant, and he spends the rest of the piece frantically trying to escape the pursuing Helène, who is, as ever, blinded by her devotion to her now distant beau. As the piece is in sonata allegro form (although without a development per se), the recapitulation is a more frantic melodic restatement of the exposition, remaining in D major instead of modulating into A major for the second section. Eventually, the frantic pace of the piece subsides; it appears Alan has finally lost his pursuer.... but we hear footsteps in the distance, and Helène calling his name, and the piece ends as she surprises her reluctant boyfriend, tackling him to the ground and glomping onto him like an extra layer of clothing while he can only lie there in shock.

Alan’s piece was most heavily influenced by Johannes Brahms’ later works for piano, especially the three rhapsodies: Op.79 No.1 in B minor, Op.79 No.2 in G minor, and Op.119 No.4 in E-flat major. The density of notes probably hints at a subconscious influence from the master of densely-written pieces, Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov.

3. Lamentation. (Phoebe Bradley)
Adagio mesto.

Key: F minor
Time signature: 3/4
Duration: 4’28"

My personal favourite piece in the suite, and one of the most popular among the first batch of listeners; it was also the first character sketch to be written. The piece almost wrote itself once I had a melodic idea; at the time, I was in a rather bleak and joyless state of mind myself, and I was able to channel it into the music. (But that was a long time ago; I’m better now!)

Phoebe Bradley, for much of the run of "Avalon", has become a voluntary outsider, shutting herself off from everyone and remaining oblivious to the fact that a lot of people care about her and genuinely want to see her happy again after her traumatic relationship with and breakup from Todd. As such, her piece does not feature any of the other character themes, and yet all four of the remaining sketches feature her theme. Her sketch is the only one in a minor key, and F minor seemed a particularly appropriate choice owing to the impassioned air it lends to a piece. The piece moves from bleak to tempestuous to passionate and back to bleak again, moving through such distant keys as E minor and B minor before finally returning to F minor with a restatement of the opening bars under a teardrop motif in the right hand; she has continued to strengthen the walls separating her from the other students, but this has certainly not brought her happiness.... only pain and isolation. But we know that the other students who are trying to penetrate the walls she has built will get through to her eventually, and the piece ends on a note of hope with a final modulation into F major.

This piece was very heavily influenced by two preludes and fugues from the Op.87 set by Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich; specifically, No.18 in F minor and No.23 in F major, both of which are quiet and low-key, the first being bleak and sombre while the second is contemplative. There are also shades of the Passepied from Debussy’s Suite bergamasque.

4. Intermezzo. (Ryan Aberdeen)
Andante espressivo - Adagio appassionato - Tempo I, più intimamente.

Key: F major
Time signature: 6/8
Duration: 4’28"

It is perhaps appropriate that the character sketch for Ryan Aberdeen is, in many ways, the most experimental; not only is Ryan the self-proclaimed "geek to end all geeks", to borrow his creator’s description once more, but in many ways he is also the most mature of the seven main characters (perhaps even more so than Alison). The piece is in A-B-A form; the initial statement of section A, in F major, is introspective, much like the character it depicts. Always thinking.... not least about how he can help to restore the object of his crush, Phoebe Bradley, to happiness. The transition to section B features both upright and inverted statements of Phoebe’s character theme; the inverted statement acts as a subtheme for Phoebe’s older sister Deirdre, from whom Ryan seeks advice on how to restore Phoebe to happiness but who ultimately convinces him that perhaps this does not involve pursuing her romantically.... and, indeed, it is she who wins his affections, and returns them in equal force during the impassioned section B, in A-flat major. Nevertheless, Phoebe’s emotional state remains on Ryan’s mind, and in the intimate restatement of section A, the themes of both Bradley sisters continue to intertwine in Ryan’s mind, but it is clear that his heart ultimately belongs to Deirdre. The piece ends on a solemn yet contemplative note in F major by way of D-flat major and B-flat minor.

I struggled with Ryan’s theme and am not entirely certain if I’m pleased with the result; he is by far the most peripheral and hence enigmatic of the seven main characters, so I was not altogether certain which aspects of his personality were even there to capture, never mind which ones were most important. Ultimately, I aimed for introversion with a degree of sophistication. The structure of the piece was very heavily influenced by Brahms’ later piano works, such as the Intermezzo in E-flat, Op.117 No.1, or the Romanze in F, Op.118 No.5. Ryan’s theme is a variation on the opening bars of Dmitri Borisevich Kabalevsky’s Prelude in B minor, Op.5 No.3.

5. Écossaise. (Ceilidh MacFarlane)
Allegro con brio e vivace - Moderato cantabile e con molto espressione - Tempo I.

Key: E-flat major
Time signature: 12/16
Duration: 3’29"

Ceilidh MacFarlane, arguably the main character of "Avalon" (at the very least, she shares the title with Joe), is the first character whose sketch weaves the themes of more than two characters into its tapestry. As her family heritage is Scottish and her first name hints at a festive nature (in contrast to her own rather more introverted nature), the piece, which once again follows an A-B-A structure, opens and closes with a bright, lively pseudo-Scottish dance in E-flat major, the sprightly melody in the right hand playing over a constant bagpipe drone in the left hand. In the centre section, we get Ceilidh’s character theme and a proper look at her personality. Unsure of herself yet nevertheless able to connect with the other characters, Ceilidh, or rather her theme, proceeds from G major through C major to F major, where her theme intertwines with that of Phoebe as she becomes the only person to whom the latter is willing to talk, to A minor, where her theme plays uneasily over that of Alan, of whose ill-advised crush she was the object, and finally to E major, where, in the most mellow, intimate section of the piece, Ceilidh’s theme is played against the as-yet undeveloped theme of her best friend and, perhaps, true love, Joseph Page. The festive section returns to close the piece.

Ceilidh’s piece was most heavily influenced by the scherzo movement of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58, a lightning quick scherzo alternating with a contemplative trio section. The Scottish dance is more influenced by would-be Scottish dances in books of studies I used when I was first learning the piano in 1986 rather than actual Scottish dances!!

6. Ballade. (Joseph Page)
Andante passionato ed espressivo - Poco più mosso - Maestoso - Andantino mesto - Moderato e pesante - Allegro con fuoco - Prestissimo - Andante come prima, passionato - Moderato, sempre espressivo - Cadenza - Finale. Allegro molto.

Key: B-flat major/E-flat major
Time signature: 3/4, going into 6/8 for eight bars in Section 3
Duration: 7’48"

Something of a musical poem documenting the loves and losses of Joseph Page, the main male character of "Avalon", the ballade can be subdivided into five sections, each depicting a different scene. Like the character, the piece is eclectic in many ways, covering many colours in the emotional spectrum, wandering through many different keys, and combining numerous musical styles along with four of the other six character themes.

SECTION 1 (0’00" - 2’12")
The Ballade opens with a statement of Joe’s theme in the initial home key of B-flat major. The tone is sombre and reflective; Joseph Page is not the most upbeat person in the school, not least because he and his mother were abandoned by his father. However, the weight doesn’t completely crush him; at least the piece is in a major key.
After all, he has his best friend, Phoebe Bradley. The initial statement of her theme (in D minor) at 0’46" is dreamlike; rather than depicting Phoebe herself, it is intended to depict Joe’s thoughts as they turn to Phoebe (hence the dreamlike lead-in, at 0’37", to the statement of her theme). She’s his closest friend and confidante; as he remarked in one comic, he tells her things he wouldn’t even write in a personal diary. There is no-one he trusts and respects more. But part of him is not content with merely being her friend. Part of him wants more.
As the music completes its transition from D minor to F major at 1’20", Joe is as resolved as he is going to be; he is going to try and persuade Phoebe to take their friendship to the next level. Here, the music becomes a bit less dreamlike, and we are treated to a musical picture of the happy friends. Joe does not bring up the subject straight away; rather, he and Phoebe engage in friendly conversation, as they have done so many times. There is a definite air of contentment.
But at 1’35", as the music shifts to A major, Joe finally musters the courage to ask Phoebe what she would say to taking their friendship to the next level. And he immediately regrets the decision as the music takes on a certain tension. Phoebe’s theme, the character it represents scared by this sudden advance, scurries away from Joe’s theme, which can only stop and watch, to the top of the piano and fades into silence. She no longer feels comfortable in his presence.... and he realises he has no choice but to accept this sad state of affairs.

SECTION 2 (2’12" - 3’57")
Joe’s theme returns in contemplative mood and in D-flat major. Though none too happy with his catastrophic advance on Phoebe, he knows that she is not his only friend - there’s Alan Gunderson as well. And before long, the two themes are playing side by side. However, there is not quite the same sense of contentment that there was when Joe and Phoebe’s themes were playing simultaneously; although Alan and Joe are now best friends, they are nowhere near as close as Joe was to Phoebe.
And they’re about to drift even further apart. At 2’32", we get our first glimpse of the beautiful and popular Helène Richer, who captures the attentions of both Joe and Alan. As the music grows louder and more passionate, the two friends make an informal wager as to who will successfully woo the extroverted blonde.
At 2’53", the passion of the music having reached a height, Joe and Helène’s themes intertwine, but before long Alan’s theme replaces that of Joe. Alan is more direct, and has his own interests and reputation in mind rather than Helène’s feelings, which are of more concern to Joe. The music gradually softens until 3’23", when Alan’s victory is sealed. The sombre, reflective tone returns as Joe and Helène’s themes intertwine. Although he may have missed his chance to be her boyfriend, he still thinks of her sorrowfully. He wants to make her happy.... but he will have to content himself with the fact that someone is making her happy, even if it isn’t him. A brief glimpse of Alan’s discomfort in the relationship with Helène is followed by the music fading away slowly as Joe sadly walks away from the mismatched couple.

SECTION 3 (3’57" - 5’15")
Phoebe feels uncomfortable in his presence. He has missed his chance with Helène. And seeing the insensitivity with which Alan treats his girlfriend has put a distance between Joe and the former. The section opens with a bleak statement of Joe’s theme in B-flat minor - the parallel major of the opening key and the first time the theme has entered in a minor key - unaccompanied by any other themes. But his thoughts soon turn to Phoebe. He has seen little of her since his disastrous advance on her, and although he knows she is now seeing a certain OAC student named Todd, he is not terribly well up on how she is faring these days.
But he soon finds out. At 4’16", the music slides into F minor and takes on a darker tone as Joe discovers the abuse Phoebe has suffered at Todd’s hands, especially the emotional destruction he perpetrates when he breaks things off with her. His anger and resentment towards Todd for treating Phoebe with so little regard for her feelings and, in part, towards himself for not being able to be there for her as he had been in the past, during a time when she could certainly have used a good friend, slowly build as his mind swims with thoughts of how he might have been able to make things better. At 4’43", in a cruel parody of the "falling into a dream" passage from 0’37", the music seems to fall into a grim nightmare.
The nightmare takes form at 4’55", when Joe finds himself walking behind Todd in the corridor. The anger and resentment continues to multiply, and his emotions continue to cloud his already tumultuous thoughts. The music grows louder and faster, louder and faster, louder and faster, as Joe’s anger towards the person who has engaged in ruthless character assassination against his former closest friend grows and grows, until finally, at 5’08", they reach the stairwell, and Joe’s thoughts whirl around and around until he can stand it no longer....
And at 5’12", he gives Phoebe’s unapologetic tormentor one big push, and watches him tumble down the flight of stairs until he lands at the bottom with a crash.

SECTION 4 (5’15" - 6’20")
Thanking his lucky stars that Todd didn’t see who pushed him down the stairs, Joe quietly leaves the scene of the crime, his thoughts still centred on Phoebe. He decides not to tell her that he pushed Todd down the stairs to get back at him for emotionally destroying her.... not least because he is no more able to face her than she is able to relate to ANYONE. The music echoes 0’46"; Phoebe’s theme wanders dreamlike through D minor, F minor, and A-flat minor until it reaches G-flat major.
At 5’39", his revenge complete, he now wanders aimlessly. Still angry with Alan for showing no regard for Helène, unable to reach Helène since she has eyes only for Alan, and unable to reach Phoebe since she has eyes for no-one, he is still rather alone.
Until 5’59", by which time the music has moved to E-flat minor. It is here that Joe meets a new student at Avalon High School: a feisty yet insecure Scottish-Canadian named Ceilidh MacFarlane. Despite some rather snide exchanges, Joe finds himself fascinated by the newcomer, and he struggles to find a place for her in a mind already preoccupied by the best friend he scared away and the girl he lost to his self-interested copain. His thoughts descend into chaos as descending chromatic double sixths at 6’13" herald the finale.

SECTION 5 - FINALE (6’20" - 7’48")
Now, Joe must ponder the place in his mind and heart of THREE girls - Phoebe Bradley, Helène Richer, and Ceilidh MacFarlane. The tone is agitated, the key is E-flat minor. Joe’s thoughts first turn to his ideal girl, Helène; then, at 6’27", they turn to the girl he trusted with every detail of his life before their falling out, Phoebe. At 6’33", he ponders the new girl, Ceilidh, and his thoughts continue to grow more chaotic. Whom, if any of these three, does he love? At 6’38", it seems his thoughts are running away from him.
At 6’44", Helène’s theme soars above the chaos. He thinks that it is she whom he loves, and his theme intertwines with that of the flighty girlfriend of his "best" friend. But his thoughts soon turn to his true best friend - the feisty yet insecure Ceilidh. As the music moves from E-flat minor to E-flat major, we begin to think that he has reached a final decision.
And at 6’58", the chaos gives way to jubilation, and from here to the end we are treated to a portrait of the lighter side of the relationship between Joseph Page and Ceilidh MacFarlane. Joe’s theme and Ceilidh’s theme alternate at first, as though the two friends are engaging in a few rounds of witty verbal jousting; this, perhaps, is what Joe values most. (The corresponding interplay between their themes in Ceilidh’s piece is more intimate; it is this side that is more important to the emotionally fragile Ceilidh.) But we do see a glimpse of their themes together at 7’28"; it seems, indeed, that at least part of Joe longs for the same depth to their relationship that Ceilidh has been seeking from the start.
The ballade ends on a rapid descent, and four final triumphant crashes. Joseph Page Esq. has found happiness. Will it last? Only the cartoonist knows for sure.... and not only is he not telling, but even if he were willing to tell, we’d rather he stay quiet!!

As I said, the influences for the piece are very diverse; the first section was influenced by Chopin’s Impromptu No.2 in F-sharp, Op.36, and "Reflets dans l’eau" from Debussy’s Images I. The second section is influenced in a way by the slow movement of Brahms’ Trio for piano, violin, and horn in E-flat major, Op.40. The third section draws from some of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, including No.11 in A minor/F-sharp major. The transitory fourth section has no one major influence; it’s just filler, really. The final section starts out like the final sections of Chopin’s Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op.23, but the very end recalls both Chopin and Liszt.

7. Fugato. (Alison Montgomery)
Adagio tranquillo - Allegretto energico - Tempo I. Poco inquieto, non tranquillo - Meno mosso.

Key: C major (more or less)/E major
Time signature: 4/4
Duration: 3’09"

Alison Montgomery is mature in many ways, but immature in others; nevertheless, her piece is, along with Ryan’s, one of the two most experimental in the set. The fugato (short fugue) is subdivided into three sections; in the first section, in C major, the subject enters four times, at one stage briefly harmonising with Ceilidh’s theme. But the section ends on an uncertain note; something is troubling Alison. The second, more upbeat section, which is in a more clearly defined C major at the start, can be interpreted two ways. Either Alison is observing the goings-on of the student body around her with an air of detachment, feeling disgust at what she sees, or the inversion of the subject could represent Iain, the brash Australian who is the opposite of Alison in every way and yet, as the appearance of five of the other six character themes (only Phoebe’s is missing) demonstrates, manages to be far more popular than his nemesis. With a flourish that seems to evoke a sense of waking from a dream, Alison is left to ponder what she has just seen, and the hesitant air about the final section, which moves from A minor to a final, uncertain E major chord, shows that she doesn’t quite understand it, but she knows she doesn’t like it.

The fugato draws more from Ludwig van Beethoven than Bach; four of the last five Beethoven sonatas feature either fugal finales or finales with fugal sections, and one such fugal section, the fifth variation of the theme and variations that finishes Sonata No.30 in E major, Op.109, was particularly responsible for the centre section. The subject is based on a choral prelude for organ from the Baroque era.

Finale. Fantaisie Canadienne.
Andante con moto - Grave - Allegretto - Grave - Moderato cantabile - Grave - Allegro vivace - Grave - Andante passionato - Poco inquieto - Con fuoco - Grave - Adagio teneramente - Grave - Allegro moderato - Andante tranquillo - L’istesso tempo, intimamente - Andante con moto come prima.

Key: F major
Time signature: 6/8 (Section 1), 3/4 (Sections 2-7), 6/4 (Section 7)
Duration: 11’42"

The finale essentially represents the entire suite, and the entire world of Avalon, in microcosm. The piece moves in tones (or whole steps if you’re American) from F major up to F major again over the course of seven sections. Each section ends/begins with one of the six complete bars of the overture.

SECTION 1 (0’00" - 0’46")
The first section, in F major, is intended to evoke an image of falling snow as the curtain rises on the world of Avalon with its ascending and descending tonal scales (or whole step scales if you’re American); it also predicts the keys through which the finale will eventually move.

SECTION 2 (0’46" - 2’00")
In the second section, in G major, the players make their entrance one by one, Alison Montgomery first. Indeed, Alison’s theme remains everpresent throughout, always observing the comings and goings of the other students. She watches as Joseph Page, Helène Richer, Alan Gunderson, Ryan Aberdeen, Phoebe Bradley, and Ceilidh MacFarlane all enter in turn, with Joe’s theme intertwining with that of Ceilidh as he watches her from a distance and ponders her place in his web of friends and acquaintances.

SECTION 3 (2’00" - 3’38")
The third section, in A major, features a continued exploration of Joe and Ceilidh’s themes, but they never appear at the same time - somehow, they don’t quite connect (although Ceilidh is heard "talking" to Alison and Phoebe, who seemed to me to be her two best friends in the earliest months of "Avalon", before their lonely and loner phases, respectively). There is a sort of magnetism between them, but it is clear neither is entirely certain either what it means or how to deal with it.

SECTION 4 (3’38" - 4’51")
The fourth section, a lively waltz in B major, is the most upbeat of all - Iain takes centre stage, with Ceilidh trailing after but somehow never quite reaching him. The ever cynical Alison looks on in disgust, her theme entering in a fiery F-sharp minor, and as Iain tries to win Phoebe, she spurns him in a furious tirade and a frenzied descent down the range of the piano, ending on a repeated octave E as the onlookers recover from the shock of Phoebe’s outburst.

SECTION 5 (4’51" - 6’44")
The fifth section in C-sharp major considers the ill-made pairings of Joe and Helène, Alan and Ceilidh, with a brief reference to the always-watching Alison. At first, Ceilidh’s theme and Joe’s theme approach each other, but reluctantly drift away again. The image of Joe and Helène appears between two pictures of Alan and Ceilidh, and while the former is in G-sharp major, the latter two are in the darker keys of A-sharp minor and E-sharp minor (or, more simply, B-flat minor and F minor). The second statement ends on a sour note similar to the one that closed the fourth section.

SECTION 6 (6’44" - 8’19")
In the sixth section in E-flat major, Joe and Ceilidh occupy the stage alone - there is no mention of any other character; even Alison is nowhere to be seen. For the first time, their themes are heard together, and the piece slides from a troubled C minor to a placid, contented E-flat major. After so many misunderstandings, perhaps they have at last found happiness in each other.

SECTION 7 (8’19" - 11’42")
In the final section, the characters exit, one by one. Iain is the first to leave, the entrance of his theme in B-flat major providing a sort of closure to the fourth section. Helène is next, but only after running back to retrieve a hiding Alan. Phoebe leaves alone, but on a note of hope as the music moves from D minor to F major. Ryan is met by Deirdre, and the two leave together. Ceilidh and Joe leave together. The last theme we hear is also the first - Alison, always watching, and seldom approving of what she sees. The snow begins to fall again, and so too does the curtain.

The counterpoint that shows up in most sections, especially the second and the fifth, owes a lot to Bach. The "falling snow" sections are heavily influenced by "The Snow is Dancing" from Children’s Corner and "Cloches à travers les feuilles" from Images II, both by Debussy. The rest of the fantaisie runs the gamut from the aforementioned Debussy to Chopin to Brahms to Haydn and Mozart to Beethoven to, probably, bits of Shostakovich and Rachmaninov again. The structure in particular owes a lot to Mozart’s Fantasy in C minor, K.475, and the final bars are influenced by the final bars of the first movement of Ravel’s String Quartet in F major.

In many ways, the union of themes, styles, and ideas that have run through the entire suite seems a perfect way to tie up everything that has gone before.

Matthew "K.A.H." Smith
Cambridge, 25 November 2001
Revised, 3 March 2002