Beryl’s birthday Twangle was written in 2006 as an eightieth birthday present for my friend Beryl Calver-Jones, who (with her friend Gerry Mattock) generously commissioned and funded several of my pieces around the turn of the century, including Stabat mater (2004) and Sonata for cello and piano (2006). It is scored for the ancient Scottish harp, the clarsach, which dates back to pre-Roman times. The clarsach has 24 strings which cover a range of just over three octaves. These are tuned as required for the music - and for Scottish folk-music are tuned in traditional modes. Unlike the modern pedal harp, however, the tuning of one octave of the clarsach does not affect that of the others; so each octave can in theory have a different modal shape - which is the case in this piece, since it makes for interesting combinations. In Beryl's birthday Twangle (which lasts two minutes) the opening bars of “Happy birthday to you” are briefly quoted in the middle octave, shortly before the Twangle builds to a brief but life-enhancing climax which culminates in a downwards swoosh by both hands across the entire range of the instrument.

Giles Swayne
2006