Recitative was written for Heider Nasralla in 2010. Its melodic line pursues a continuous, but not exactly smooth, course up hill and down dale for seven minutes. Troubled it may be, but not shapeless in its overall structure, whose broad cyclic rhythm pursues a natural swell, generated by a feeling of dialogue between the chant-line we hear at the opening and a succession of increasingly dramatic interruptions. The dialogue builds to a climax, marked by 2-note multiphonics, which in their turn take on the role of agents for a final, affirmative peace.
Heider Nasralla gave the piece its first performance in May 2011 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester.