Lake of Tenderness was commissioned by Dr. Robert Childs and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band as part of their 2015 Brass in Concert programme, in which a selection of new pieces were commissioned based on the various basaltic plains of the earth’s moon, thought by early astronomers to be lakes.

 

Lake of Tenderness, named after the Latin ‘Lacus Lenitatis’, uses extended harmony to evoke imagery of the solitary moon in the still of space.  The piece grows in texture and dynamic as if one were getting closer and closer to the Lake of Tenderness until the piece arrives at a thrilling climax.  As the piece comes to an end the music dies away as if one were moving away from the moon, finishing with a final image of the full moon.

Ben Hollings, January 2016