Passacaglia – Peter Campbell-Kelly

Peter Campbell-Kelly is Section Leader, Second Violins of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

In the recording below he plays Biber’s Mystery Sonata No. 16, ‘Passacaglia’ for solo violin.

Peter has also written an accompanying poem. He describes the pairing as “…a sort of musical prayer, intended somehow for the well-being of all of us in this desperately difficult pandemic.”

Passacaglia
Our songs of sadness touch
The dry-deep scars of earth

And on this peaty path
a lichened branch
Cuts clean through the heart

And people lie dying
And people die weeping

And the waters ripple slow
And the sun lasts down and down

And the curlew throws free
Her liturgy of fiery love

Copyright © 2020 Peter Campbell-Kelly