Triptych
Composing a work for a competition is always something of a dilemma. Although the main requirement is to produce an exacting technical test, a composer must try and avoid the ephemeral nature of such a task and create something more universal. Triptych is therefore as much of a musical challenge as a technical one – intended for concerts as well as for competitions.
Triptych is cast in three movements, each having its own musical characterisation:
‘A Dionysian Dialogue’ takes up the idea of the conflict of ‘opposites. The dialogue is really between Dionysus and Apollo, or the metaphorical representation of …
Read MoreAn Album for my Friends
The idea for this set of piano pieces initially came from writing one as a 60th birthday present (I shall not mention which one!). Having written one Baroque-titled piece, I gradually added more, until a whole suite of Baroque dances was completed. The stimulus of writing a modern set of pieces based on Baroque models (in my case a mixture of the English and French Suites of Bach) is nothing new of course. Many twentieth-century composers were inspired by the rigours of devising new ways of looking at Baroque dances, and in the process brought new life to the forms …
Read MoreConcerto for Orchestra
Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by the National Centre for Orchestral Studies and was first performed by their symphony orchestra conducted by Adrian Leaper (under the original title of Greenwich Dances) in May 1983. A revised version, now under the title of Contrasts – a concerto for orchestra was given its premiere by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, in 1989. A final revision of the work was made in 2001 for the recording by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Douglas Bostock, on the Classico label. As the original brief was to …
Read MoreMusic for Chamber Orchestra
This work was commissioned in 1967 by the English Chamber Orchestra and was completed the following year. The work is dedicated to Alan Bush with whom the composer studied at the Royal Academy of Music from 1963-67.
Music for Chamber Orchestra is in four movements. The opening movement is the longest and has a sonata form structure. There are two main ideas: a fugal style chromatic subject, sombre and slow, is announced by strings and builds to climax as the wind section enters. A more lyrical second subject is announced by the oboe over a repetitive rhythmic string accompaniment. Both …
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