Here endeth the lesson (2024)

Commissioned by Belle Quartet

Programme Note:

Written in just two days, this short work is thanks to a last minute request from Belle Quartet for a new piece to be included on their first EP. With an incredibly tight deadline, I looked back to old works and sketches to provide a head start and thankfully came across a violin and cello duo I wrote for LCM Morricone Composition Festival during my second year on my undergraduate composition degree.

Here endeth the lesson celebrates Ennio Morricone's work on Brian De Palma's Academy Award-winning film, The Untouchables (1987) - a score which I have loved since watching the film as a teenager. The piece takes its name from the last line said by Eliot Ness to Al Capone upon the successful act of justice to end Capone’s prohibition reign of Chicago. Specifically inspired by the music accompanying the main titles, this piece intends to mirror Morricone’s motivic economy whilst conjuring the similar musical tropes of uncertainty and suspense synonymous with classic films of the gangster genre.