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Programme Notes |
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Read the composer's programme notes for the two concerts given by the BBC Philharmonic and SPNM. BBC Philarmonic conducted by James MacMillan Recorded on the 19th of February 2008  Charlie Usher - Rothko Monody Rothko Monody was written in 2006. At the time I was interested in the work of abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. His later works - vast, monolithic canvases of gloomily phosphorescent colour broken up by two or three horizontal slabs in different shades - can appear to loom out of the exhibition space, the physical limits of the canvas becoming ambiguous. Rothko Monody is a kind of temporal projection of these works - structural components are paralleled, and the sense of hovering infinity and the filling of our peripheral vision echoed. Programme Note by Charlie Usher  Chris Litherland - ‘Funferall’ The genesis for this piece comes from a quotation I found in the Encyclopaedia of Ancient and Oriental Music. It referred to the fact that in Roman times people really enjoyed funerals, so much so that if no-one happened to be dead at the time they would throw a mock funeral where everybody got very drunk and wailed and moaned, loudly playing trumpets, banging drums and carrying an empty coffin through the streets. (“Ad tubicines mittas” – “send for the trumpets” – signifies “prepare for the funeral!”) The title itself comes from a passage in Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce. (“…fim, fim, fim with a grand funferall, fum, fum, fum …….”), a work which also contains many a reference to drunken revelry. I suppose my piece, ‘Funferall’ combines the idea of a humorous and yet somewhat aggressive mock funeral with the seemingly nonsensical babble and unconstrained stream of consciousness found in Joyce’s novel. Programme Note by Chris Litherland  Brian Noyes - Points of Decision (Symphonic Metamorphoses after John Clare) Music has always been around me in some form or another, but I began my musical education by studying classical guitar. I freelanced as a performer for several years, but my interest in composition grew from those times, which were especially exciting in the contemporary music field. I remember attending a revelatory concert (for me) of Le Marteau sans Maitre and from that time began to seriously study composition, firstly at Cardiff University and then Goldsmiths College, London. The most important times for me, though, were going to Dartington Summer School, when Sir Peter Maxwell Davies taught there, and also a weekend of workshops at Aldeburgh School of Advanced Studies with Sir Harrison Birtwistle. Since that time I have had pieces performed by Lontano, Singcircle, Music Projects London, the Hilliard Ensemble, the Latvian Radio Choir, amongst others, via commissions from the Vale of Glamorgan Festival and other soloists. Although I have been composing for some years now, I feel that it is only of late that I have found a language which is natural for me, and one which accommodates my affinity for narrative. Furthermore, I have always felt that music should be expressive of those human emotions of which we are made, and have always wanted to marry such expressive qualities with a contemporary musical language in order to be of the present but also acknowledge the past, and even build upon it. Programme Note by Brian Noyes BBC Philarmonic conducted by James MacMillan Recorded on the 23rd of February 2008  Christian Mason - …From Bursting Suns Escaping… Here are some words and images, which shed some light on my understanding and feeling of the piece: Energy of unseen light From bursting suns escaping Reflected in the abstract sight Of memory’s awaking My enduring concern with the nature and experience of ‘creative energy’ - where lies its source? How can it be cultivated and harnessed? How can it be transformed into sound? - was powerfully present to me during the time of composition. It is widely understood that light is a source of energy which, when transformed by plant and animal organisms, is not just good, but necessary for growth and life itself. Sound on the other hand, though also a form of energy (if of a different nature), is often experienced as little more than a commodity - altogether less essential, if undeniably desirable. Yet sound too creates its transformations, causes growth and leaves lasting impressions. And whereas the fruits of light-energy are clearly visible, sound-energy has interior impact: it is ‘unseen light’… As important as any words I can think of are these ink drawings, which I did around the same time I began composing the piece. It shows some ‘bursting suns’ and their emanations…   Programme Note by Christian Mason  Symon Clarke - Statue Circle The piece traces a circular journey that ends in the same territory in which it began. The music is constructed by using blocks of related but contrasting material, which appear in interlocking cycles. The journey unfolds continuously but frequently retraces its steps, as if the same statues en route are being observed from different angles. At the mid-point of the journey a very different kind of music emerges; the centre around which the circular path travels represents another world … The return path culminates by reaching the point where the music started; it is recognisably the same place but in someways the journey has changed our perception Programme Note by Symon Clarke |
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