Readers - Phamie Gow's music

I have only known Phamie since the beginning of 2002 but she has quickly become a cherished friend. She was only 22 years old then but had already recorded two CDs of her own compositions. She sings and plays various instruments, but it was her mastery of the clarsach (Celtic harp) that caught my ear.

At some point I got the crazed idea of asking her to write a piece for this website. My initial notion was that she should produce something like the court music which the sybling Quenthas played in The Chosen. Of course, the Quenthas were conjoined twins and thus, to emulate the effect of their four hands playing simultaneously, Phamie would have had to overlay two separate tracks.

Fortunately, when I actually came to make the comission - for which I paid by asking Kev to design and build Phamie a website - I had the sense to let her do her own thing. I merely asked her to listen to some William Byrd virginal music, some Bach and some Toumani Diabate a genius of the kora - a traditional instrument from Mali.

When Phamie invited me to spend a couple of days with her at a cottage she was looking after in Galloway, I arrived to find that she had composed her first impression of what she chose to name The Stone Dance of the Chameleon. Though beautiful, I saw this as only a beginning. I revealed to her some of the deeper themes that underlie my books as well as the importance of the division of the work into three parts and how the number three plays a generally critical role. I went off to cook dinner, and when I returned she had already, miraculously, produced two more themes to add to the first - each having at its core a triple of notes in which either the first, second or third are stressed.

The piece evolved through more collaborative meetings in which we shaped her ideas so that the piece would match the structure of my story. One day she came and played what essentially was the finished work.

I have to confess that early on I quickly lost hold of my original goal. The delight that I derived from collaborating with such a talented musician became an end in itself. The result is far grander than anything either of us had ever envisaged. However unworthy I feel my website to be of such marvellous work, it is an excellent way in which I can share my delight in Phamie's masterpiece with you, my reader.

Phamie's notes