Notes on "Return"
I met Judy Marcuse in 1976 around the time of my graduation from UBC music school. She had just moved to Vancouver from London, where she danced with Ballet Rambert, and was establishing herself as a choreographer.
We got on well and decided to do some work together -the first piece was this small guitar duet. Basically, we simply worked together in a dance studio for several hours, with her dancing solo and me playing guitar. I walked away with some ideas, and wrote the piece for two guitars in a couple of weeks, with further trips to the studio.
The title is from a hexagram in the I Ching. I still like the piece very much - unfortunately its ideas are very condensed: there is enough material here for a much more extended piece, which I may well write someday.
The other guitar in this duet was played by Hugh Sandialnds, an excellent player and a friend of mine from UBC. We recorded it for Judith at UBC, with Hal Beckett engineering, and then played it live for the "Evening of Dance and Music" that Judith and I co-presented at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in 1977. I have tried with only modest success to find out more about Hugh's career - he moved on to study lute and a variety of historical plucked instruments in Vancouver and in Europe, and has established himself there as a performer with various ensembles of early music. His discography is extensive but I can find no home page for him.