This work was commissioned by the Governors of Southlands College to mark the completion of the New Southlands College on Roehampton Lane. It was given its 1st performance by Peter O’Hagan on the 11th February 1998.

after viewing Goya's 'black paintings',

Prado, Madrid, Summer '97...


This piece is much concerned with the 'shadows' of the title. Indeed almost every aspect of the work can be seen somehow to relate to the ways that shadows obscure and hide, and with the ways that the mind fills in and gives texture to what is hidden.
In terms of sound, the role of the electronics is to extend the instrument, generating 'shadows' of what has been played, delaying, stretching, modifying and replaying (most obviously heard in the grainy textures towards the start of the work) and through these modifications to create, initially out of material taken from a previous work 'fffppp', a new piece - in itself a shadow. From this point of departure the piece becomes self-generating, a complex overlaying of many shadows...