Runswick: Capricci Reynaldo, Daryl, picture by Antigone Avdi
Daryl Runswick, bass


 

Daryl Runswick writes:

This piece is inspired by two friends: Reynaldo Young and Nikos Veliotis. In 2001 Reynaldo composed and performed 7 caprichos for electric guitar and blew me away. Earlier in the same year Nikos gave the premiere of my Sonata (Gracing) on cello. This piece is named after Reynaldo's (his is titled in Spanish, mine in Italian) and replaces Sonata (Gracing), a piece which laid a ridiculous burden on the player and which I've since withdrawn (but Nikos did it brilliantly).

Capricci can be played on any instrument of the string family. On this recording I'm playing my
NS Design Omni Bass, a rather
high-class electric instrument (see picture below).

 

 

   The Italian word 'capriccio' (the title of this piece is the plural form of the word) translates as 'caprice' or 'whim', but also 'tantrum'. The score is to be improvised. No music exists, just a shape and some suggestions in words. The shape consists of six sections, A–G, which are laid out to be repeated in the form of a pyramid (see opposite). The suggestions are quite vague, interpretable in different ways by different players or by the same player on different nights.

   What you see opposite is the whole score. The player starts at section D. When a section returns it will naturally (since the player is improvising) be varied, but hopefully still recognisable from before.

   You'll have noticed that section F contains no instructions.


     Picture by Lucinda Shepherd