The New World
Instrumentation – steel-string guitar
Duration – c.3’20”
Written in Brighton 2007
First performed by Lee Westwood at the wedding of Laura & Ramón Pape, in a small church in Cambridge, 2007
Dedicated to, and written for the wedding of, Laura & Ramón Pape. A composition that was written very quickly, in the space of about two hours whilst working one day in Aguilera Guitars. I had recently read the book ‘Seeds Of Change’ by Henry Hobhouse, and was struck by the idea of what it would have been to be one of these people of old, traversing the world in big wooden boats, seeking out new lands to rape and pillage, with countless hardships along the way, and perhaps a number of your co-workers dying during the journey. Then one morning, you come up on deck in a bleached-out light, and gaze over the surface of a still and glassy sea to greeted, on the distant horizon, by the New World.