In the Night Garden (2010), virelai for solo marimba, was commissioned by Richard Mason and
written for and dedicated to percussionist Peter Jarvis.
Virelai (noun, Old French)
1. an old French form of short poem, composed of short lines running on two
rhymes and having two opening lines recurring at intervals.
2. any of various similar or other forms of poem, as one consisting of stanzas made
up of longer and shorter lines, the lines of each kind rhyming together in each
stanza, and having the rhyme of the shorter lines of one stanza forming the
rhyme of the longer lines of the next stanza.
3. a medieval song form providing a musical setting for a virelai but having a formal
structure different from that of the poem.