This piece is a dramatic soliloquy in variation form for solo viola, composed in March 2022. It was originally written as a short sketch for a workshop in October 2021 with Katherine Wren, who then encouraged me to expand on it, essentially commissioning this present piece.

The context behind Deer Tracks was the idea of finding deer’s hoof prints on the ground of the forest next to my family house. I have often caught brief glimpses of these animals, who often start shying away in graceful movements when I approach them. To capture this, the piece, starting off in relative mystical stillness, then develops in dance-like variations of rising pitch and ever-increasing rhythm, travelling through the various gaits, from steady walking to a bouncing canter, climaxing in a frantic sprint with various tumbles, before being cut off back to the initial slowness (as the poor beast is presumably caught by its adversary).

The ultimate impression I wanted to get in this piece was to imagine this deer on a fantastical plane, as one observes its prints and imagines how it moved from that spot to virtually retell its subsequent story, before those prints dissipate as dust in the closing bars of the piece.

The viola part features a variety of colourful techniques used throughout, including col legno and both sul ponticello and sul tasto bowings, to give hints of the deer’s sound world.

SoundCloud recording - Katherine Wren

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