Locks of the Approaching Storm

… there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aëry surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith’s height,
The locks of the approaching storm …

Ode to the West Wind, Percy Bysshe Shelley

2015
7 minutes
Eight players
picc(=afl).cl. – hn – perc(1): vib/crot/hi-hat/2 bongos/4 toms/BD/large susp.cymbal/ tam-t – strings(1.0.1.1.1)

Written for the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Music of Today Series as a result of receiving the 2015 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize.