This version of Dance, MacAber! (originally commissioned by Alison Mitchell on behalf of the Scottish Chamber Soloists who gave the first performance in December 2009) was made for a concert to mark my 60th birthday given by Red Note with Music Lab of the RSAMD in March 2011.

My original brief was to write a piece which felt Scottish but without any obvious pastiche and, for some reason, I started to think about the title "Danse macabre" and how I might use it to draw together a suite of movements inspired by Scottish dances which might be the best way to meet this requirement. The word "macabre" can also be spelt "macaber" so it seemed reasonable to invent the Scots sounding surname "MacAber?, change the noun to a verb and add an exclamation mark to satisfy what I had in mind. The work falls into 3 sections played without a break, which are: Gigue, Interlude with Sarabande and Strathspey, and Reel. I have tried to capture the spirit of the Scottish dances as well as hinting at the macabre element although, hopefully, a sense of slightly manic fun pervades the whole work.