Red was commissioned for the 2016 Zodiac Music Festival in Valdeblore, France. The title reflects my interest in the colour of sounds and the inner harmonies of musical spectra. This piece is part of a series of pieces inspired by the colours of the visible spectrum.

The opening sonority in E-flat, which lent the piece its name, is a vivid scarlet red. This red E-flat is the starting point to ever more distant and metallic “outer” harmonies. Red is also the colour of intensely felt, passionate emotion, of love, as well as that of rage. As well as the red of harmony, the red of emotion is present everywhere, even in the most dissonant moments. At the highest point, the scarlet E-flat returns, brighter and more passionate than ever.

Red was premiered on Bastille Day, July 14, 2016 – the same day that 84 people were killed hundreds injured in a truck attack in Nice, an hour north of Valdeblore in the Alps. The title has taken on an entirely unanticipated meaning.