Sanguis Venenatus

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Sanguis Venenatus is a short elegy for string orchestra by English composer Andrew March, written in 2009 to remember haemophiliacs affected by contaminated blood. It grew from his 2009 cycle of ten string quartets about diurnal birds of prey; the fifth piece in that cycle, Elegy for an Unsuspecting Phalarope, inspired the idea, with a buzzing predator image that March used as a metaphor for the contaminated-blood disaster. The Latin title Sanguis Venenatus means “Tainted Blood,” and the score is dedicated to those who died from contaminated blood products.

The piece lasts about 5 minutes and 30 seconds. It was first performed on 20 March 2010 in Todmorden Town Hall by the Todmorden Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Concannon Hodges. It was later given a commemorative performance at Westminster Abbey on 30 March 2011 to mark 40 years since the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, with the London Charity Orchestra conducted by William Carslake. The music was recorded on 9 July 2011 in Reduta Hall, Olomouc, by 50 string players from the Moravian Philharmonic under Petr Vronský, and released as the fourth track on the Navona Records CD Dimensions – Works for String Orchestra (NV5895) in 2012.

Gramophone praised Sanguis Venenatus as intensely felt, noting slow, aching lines and mild dissonances. The work has been broadcast internationally, including early radio airings in Princeton (2012), South Africa (2013), Spain (2013), Sweden (2013), Hungary (2014), the United Kingdom (2015), and Canada (World AIDS Day 2017).