The commission for Tsunami was a sombre one: the work was to begin a concert in Canterbury Cathedral on 12 February 2005 (played on that occasion by Thomas Hewitt Jones) in memory of those who died in the Asian tsunami of December 2004. Patterson took the brief head-on, creating a visceral, terrifying, programmatic depiction of the tidal wave, combining the toccata writing of his early works with some heavily controlled elements of directed improvising: performances of the work therefore retain a constant narrative that is coloured by the imagination of the individual performer
© Huw Morgan, 2012 (CD sleeve notes)
Written: 2005
Scoring: Solo Organ
Duration: 6
Dedication: Dedication: ‘To the Victims of the Tidal Wave’
Publisher: Josef Weinberger
Thomas Hewitt Jones, organ