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"A Sonata of Solstices and Equinoxes" (2016) was written for the English pianist Matthew Schellhorn, a long-time collaborator and good friend of mine who has premiered most of my substantial piano works. The sonata's third movement, "Sonnenwende", was written some years before as a standalone piece but since it had been inspired by the idea of the summer solstice and its attendant celebrations, I subsequently wanted to write a substantial 4-movement work inspired by all the equinoxes and solstices. So the first movement is entitled "Newgrange" and was inspired by the winter solstice sun lighting up the ancient megalithic structure in County Meath, Ireland each December; it is a proper sonata movement, albeit with a slightly different way than normal of making the recapitulation work. The second movement is titled "Vasanta" after the Hindu name for spring. The music here is very decorative and the principal metre references a traditional Hindu tabla metre. The last movement is "Alcyone", the name of the brightest star in the Pleiades cluster which is especially bright in the autumn and for which star there are some (possibly tenuous) links to the ancient Egyptians and the Great Pyramid; this movement is essentially monodic, like all ancient music.