Peter Campbell-Kelly Plays Biber’s Mystery Sonata No. 16 ‘Passacaglia’

Peter Campbell-Kelly is a classical violinist and a new poet working on his first collection.

This is a video of Campbell-Kelly performing the beautiful Sonata No. 16 ‘Passacaglia’ by Biber. He has also written an accompanying poem. Enjoy.

“It is a sort of musical prayer, intended somehow for the well-being of all of us, in this desperately difficult pandemic…” — Peter Campbell-Kelly

Passacaglia

Our songs of sadness touch
The dry-deep scars of earth

And on this peaty path
A lichened branch
Cuts clean through the heart

And people lie dying
And people die weeping

And the waters ripple slow
And the sun lasts down and down

And the curlew throws free
Her liturgy of fiery joy

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