Latin Cabaret was composed in 2004. ‘The initial material for this piece came together during 2004 and evolved from technical and musical ideas from… Sugarloaf Mountain (Scenes from Brazil) and Rockweed (Scenes from The Wild West).
‘The pentatonic scale features prominently in much of the melodic material, often recurring in subtly different harmonic settings, as if seeing the same object in changing light or from different angles. One melodic idea is an almost exact reversal of the opening theme for example.’
‘There are also percussive techniques woven into the musical texture and elements of minimalism, where I repeat the same group of notes in different permutations to create textures similar to changes in bell ringing.’
Latin Cabaret was commissioned by the UK guitar trio Appassionata (Rebecca Baulch, Amanda Cook and Hayley Savage) and first performed in London in 2005.