Eastward Oh
Notes
Eastward Oh is a mini cello concerto featuring the wonderful talents of Hugh McDowell. The premiere was given at Lauderdale House in London in 1987. This recording was made at Royal Holloway College later that year. The piece was also performed in Germany, conducted by Ladislav Kupkovic and broadcast on Hannover Radio in 1991.
Eastward Oh is a highly lyrical piece, whose form derives from a pataphysical spiral drawn on a map of the south-west of England. It starts at the seaside town of Westward Ho! in North Devon and unravels in an easterly direction, ending at the Museum of Mechanical Music that used to exist near Liskeard in Cornwall. The spiral makes three turns and the piece similarly has three sections that gradually unravel and become more expansive and relaxed. Between the second and third sections is a cello cadenza, played entirely pizzicato (Hugh was particularly proud of his pizzicato playing). The systemic aspects of this piece are more relaxed than in previous works, but the melodies sing out over repetitive patterns played by piano and percussion. The 'thou art nought to me' phrase from Phaon frequently recurs and there is an erotic dimension derived from the pun of the title on Histoire d'O, the celebrated novel by Pauline Reage. This was a prescient piece, because some seven years later I was to relocate to Looe, near Liskeard, to compose Island Symphony, my first large-scale digital composition. My wife-to-be, Louise, who I met online whilst I was composing that piece, lived at Welcombe Cross in North Devon, which the spiral passes through on its first turn.