Sally Beamish: Iasg [download]

10-minute work for cello and piano, composed 1993. Commissioned by Bill Connor.

Iasg, which translates from Gaelic as `fish', was written for Robert, a fine fisherman and cellist, and Graeme, a fluid and fluent pianist.

It describes the journey of a salmon from its hatching in a mountain stream to its spawning and death after the last traumatic series of leaps upstream to its birthplace. The central section depicts the long period of peaceful feeding in the open sea.