The Peacock Pavane by DAVID BRUCE

The Pavane is a slow stately dance common in Europe since the Renaissance. There is some suggestion that the Spanish word pavón - meaning peacock - is the origin of the dance's name, but peacocks also have many different symbolic meanings, they can be seen as a symbol of beauty, self expression, royalty, luck, or new life (some see them as the earthly incarnation of the mythical phoenix). With it's spectacular tail-feathers full of eyes, the peacock is also a symbol of watchfulness and patience.

I like to think of The Peacock Pavane as a kind of 'dance from afar'. It was written at the height of the Covid pandemic amidst a time of watchfulness, patience, stoicism. I think the piece is mainly about waiting. It doesn't really go anywhere. Time continues, but it treads the same steps over and over.

During the pandemic many of us spent weeks and months away from loved ones, longing for that moment when we'll finally be able to reunite. That feeling was heightened for me in the September of 2020 when my daughter, my eldest child, left home to start her studies. During the previous 6 months of the lockdown we had all spent a lot of time together as a family and I had enjoyed more than ever the time spent with her, going for walks and chatting about the future. Then suddenly she was off, peacock-like, to start a new life and what was left behind was tender feelings of absence and longing.

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Miloš expresses his thanks to Michael Lewin for help in editing the performer's guitar part to deal with the scordatura.