Ricercare una melodia

In Ricercare una melodia, an ingenious work for solo instrument and tape delay from the mid 1980s, Jonathan Harvey takes the literal meaning of Ricercare—to seek—as the inspiration for its structure. It unfolds as two fivepart canons—the first frenetic, twittering, and rowdy, the second (where the canon is progressively augmented) more luminous and contemplative. A characterful and concise masterpiece from one of the visionaries of electroacoustic music.