Derek Ball: For Charlie [download]

“The first time I ever remember meeting Charlie was at a rehearsal of the then RTE Light Orchestra. They were playing a piece of mine containing a viola solo which it fell to Charlie to play as leader of the violas. He played it with an enormous passion which surprised me and, in my timidity, took me slightly aback. At a break in the rehearsal he asked me about the interpretation of the passage. I was struck by his enormous enthusiasm; my own music was as important to him as it was to me, and this attitude came as a sort of revelation and relief to me. He was enormously encouraging. As I came to know him better, I found that Charlie's musical interests and activities were widespread; he championed string pieces by many young composers as well as several of my own, and always with the same enormous, open, generous sense of music's enjoyment. Charlie was a leader in several ways, and Irish musical life is richer thanks to him; the most important way in which he led was in the example he set: for him, music was something central, something to throw yourself into and commit yourself to totally.

For Charlie

This piece for string quartet is in memory of Charlie Maguire. I would have liked it to be a happy, celebratory piece; it couldn't be, because that's not how I feel about losing Charlie. But it's deeply felt, because that's the way of it if Charlie is anything to do with it - Derek Ball