As I sat down to play the piano at home late one evening in June 2023, I experienced an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the life and generosity of the late Hugo Burge. He was a wonderful artistic philanthropist and the inspirational owner and restorer of Marchmont House, Berwickshire, where I have been Composer-in-Residence. A melody began to unfold. It was as though my heart sang, and the music seemed to flow freely, winding its way, with gentleness and affection, through a palette of harmonic colours.

The piece was first performed a month later, at the Summer Serenade concert in the Lorimer Music Room at Marchmont House, by Benedict Holland and Simon Leach.

Full of elegance, charm and sensitivity, the musical conversation between violin and piano speaks, through the gift of music, of matters otherwise inexpressible, and so is, quintessentially, a Song without Words.