Suite for Prepared Piano, Volume 1 (2018)
Suite for Prepared Piano, Volume I
(2018)
Nine movements (15’),
Solo piano, light preparation.
A collection of piano miniatures which I started during a weekend in composing isolation in the countryside before Christmas 2017 and completed in spring 2018.
The preparation for these miniatures is fairly light — brass bolts are inserted between 14 strings, creating bell-like tones; blue tack is laid on several others, giving a plucked, stopped sound; most other notes sound as normal. The nine movements come to around 15 minutes, each one lasting between 45 seconds and several minutes.
Movement 4 is framed by a solemn declaration, before embarking on a playful jazz-like theme, 5 has cascades of arpeggios, Number 2 has a melancholy theme heard over a minimalistic ostinato, Number 7 makes a feature of the contrast between the bell and plucked tones, 8 is reams of arpeggios with changing numbers of semiquavers, while Movement 9 completes the set with a child-like, music-box ditty.
The wonderful Kamilla Arku recorded the suite on a lovely Bluthner at Alice’s Loft studio. Thanks very much to Denise Mangiardi and her team Joe Wensley and assistant Antonio.
Kamilla performed this piece at St George the Martyr in Borough, as part of her programme of new music for the Borough New Music series, in February 2019.
Score available on request. You can listen to the pieces here:
Star
Star (2010)
Mixed ensemble (fl, pno, cl/bcl, gtr, acc) (5’)
Performed by Graphite ensemble at the Forge, London, 2010.
This piece depicts the arrival of a new and mysterious star.
Score available on request
Concerto for Oboe
Concerto for Oboe (2001)
Oboe, string orchestra and percussion (20’)
Performed in 2001 by:
John Anderson, oboe,
Conductor Dominic McCongical,
North Nottingham Youth Chamber Orchestra,
St Mary’s Church, Nottingham.
After leaving university I co-formed, with 4 fellow Contemporary Arts graduates, Nottingham Composers, — Chris Johnson, Stephanie Smith, Matt Cambridge and Steve Dalton — who put on concerts of our own work, gaining funding and working with local orchestras.
For the concert Twister II we collaborated with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, each composer writing for a particular musicians for their solo instrument. I wrote for the wonderful oboist John Anderson.
We gathered together a string orchestra with percussion of children and adults, forming the North Nottingham Youth Chamber Orchestra, and the concert was conducted by Dominic McCongical.
Score available on request.
The Open Door
The Open Door (1997)
Chamber orchestra (20’)
Performed by North Nottingham Youth Chamber Orchestra, at Djangoly Hall and the Congregational Hall, Nottingham in 1997.
After leaving university I co-formed, with 4 fellow Contemporary Arts graduates, Nottingham Composers, — Chris Johnson, Stephanie Smith, Matt Cambridge and Steve Dalton — who put on concerts of our own work, gaining funding and working with local orchestras.
For the concert Twister, for which I composed The Open Door, we gathered together a chamber orchestra of children and adults, forming the North Nottingham Youth Chamber Orchestra. We conducted our own pieces.
The 3-movement The Open Door depicts a crisis for humanity – the old order clashing with the new, with finally the beginnings of a transformed world emerging.
Score on request
Two Women Good Music
Two Women Good Music Concert
Miracle in Macondo (1995, 25’)
Escape (1995, 8’)
Drinking the Tamar (1995, 6’)
Orchestra
Orchestra and SATB choir
Nottingham-based Wet Arts Company commissioned myself and composer Stephanie Smith to write several pieces for a concert they named Two Women Good Music at the Congregational Hall, Nottingham in 1995.
Miracle in Macondo (25’) was influenced by the rhythms of flamenco music and featured the orchestra clapping as well as playing their instruments.
Escape (8’) was inspired by the end scene from my favourite film, Truffaut’s Quatre Cent Coups, in which the lead character escapes from his juvenile delinquent centre. The camera follows him as he runs and runs, eventually reaching the sea.
I developed Drinking the Tamar from a smaller ensemble piece, with mentoring by Judith Weir while I was at university.
An Den Mond was composed for orchestra and choir, incorporating the words from An Den Mond, a poem by the poet Stephen Sheil.
Excerpts from Miracle in Macondo and An Den Mond: