Duration: 12'
The two movements of Dance the dark streets are inspired by poems about different aspects of Scottish weather. I enjoy the rich language and the sense of glowering stillness that Alexander's poem, Haar in Princes Street, evokes with phrases such as 'hudder like ghaists in the gastrous haar.' In Haar I have tried to capture the drifting looming quality of that mist from the sea.
The second movement, Whirlwind, brushes away the 'haar' with a wild wind. This movement is influenced by Norman MacCaig's poem, 'April dances the dark streets of November, Pied Piper leading a procession of the coloured dreams of summer.'
Duration: 8'
Dancing Fish is inspired by a Russian fable of the same name by Ivan Krylov. Krylov worked in government before abandoning the post in 1807 to devote himself exclusively to a literary career. His famous Fables, published in 1809, were immediately successful. His tales expose human weakness and are directed against injustice and corruption, rife in the government and professions of the time.
Dancing Fish tells of the piscine race, contentedly getting on with its fishy business in the stream. The fox, elected by the Lion, ruler of all beasts, oversees the finny tribe as governor. However, the waters grow murky as the fox has a penchant for indulging in a fishy dish or two. One day, the Lion passes by and notes that the fox is growing rather fat and asks why the fish 'wag their tails and heads that way?' The crafty fox replies that the Lion's presence has brought the fish joy and set them all a-dancing. The Lion, suspecting (at last) that the fox is up to no good decides to make him pay for his corrupt behaviour, but too, late for the fish are now having their last dance - in the frying pan.
A fragment of Russian folk song is first heard on the saxophone in the opening section and makes further melancholic appearances as the piece progresses, moving from aquatic tranquility to somewhat frantic dancing.
Dancing Fish was commissioned by Sarah Field with funds from David Bowerman and presented by Concordia Foundation and was first performed by Sarah Field, soprano saxophone and the Bronte String Quartet on 29 May, 2004 at the Purcell Room. The following year the string orchestra version was made for a Dutton Epoch recording for Amy Dickson, saxophone, and Orchestra Nova.
There is now a version for Narrator, soprano sax and string orchestra which tells the whole story!
Duration: 10'
A work to complement the well-loved, The Lark Ascending, a beautiful, musical response to the poem by Meredith. The Descending Blue is based on Spring, by Gerard Manley Hopkins. As I read the poem I found there were many similar resonances with the Meredith poem:
Perhaps this work should be called The Thrush Descending! As an acknowledgement to Vaughan Williams I have used five tunes in the work; The Springtime of the Year, Greensleeves, Down Ampney, Monks Gate and John Ireland's My song is love unknown.
Duration: 12'
Great Hills takes its title from the poem, The South Country, by the distinguished local poet and MP, Hilaire Belloc, in which he describes, with great warmth, his love for the surrounding countryside. When the Artistic Director, Andrew Bernardi, introduced me to this beautiful part of England and its gentle rolling landscape with all its vibrant associations in both music and literature I knew I was going to have a feast of inspiration for Great Hills.
One of these associations is with the violinist, Lady Anne Blunt, an ancestor of the Lytton family of Newbuildings Place, Shipley: her Stradivarius was made in 1721 which was about the time Bach wrote his Brandenburg Concerto No.4 (also in the programme of the premiere performance)and it was this connection that seemed to me a perfect starting point for the work. Great Hills uses the same instrumental combination as the Bach concerto grosso (solo violin, two flutes and strings) and the first movement, Prelude, takes on some of the characteristics of this 18th century form with some unexpected twists.
The second movement, Passacaglia: the still night, grew from a poem, A Summer Evening Churchyard, by the poet, Shelley (born in Horsham, near Shipley). The gentle pace of this beautiful poem is echoed by the ground bass as it unfolds beneath the meditative, lyrical line of the solo violin and the interlocking flutes.
The busy, continual motion of the final movement was suggested to me by the sails, grinding cogs and mechanical action of the windmill in Toccata: Belloc's Mill (the windmill was also known as King's Mill and as Mrs Shipley). The perpetual movement is shared between the soloists and the strings, always driving the work onwards. In the coda of the toccata the energetic patterns are repeated and as they unwind the work gradually comes to a halt before an exuberant finish.
Belloc acquired the mill in 1906 and kept it in use with the miller Ernest Powell working there until it finally ceased to operate in 1926. On one occasion Belloc invited Powell to make up a four at cards. The other two players turned out to be G.K.Chesterton and Winston Churchill!
This work is dedicated to the memory of my cousin, Charlotte Johnson, whose love of beauty in nature was always an inspiration.
Great Hills has been generously funded by Eve Barratt, a longstanding Friend of Shipley Arts Festival.
Duration: 9'
Rain, Steam and Speed was commissioned by The Portsmouth Grammar School for the London Mozart Players, conductor, Nicolae Moldoveanu. The first performance was given on 24 June, 2006 at the Gala Concert of the Portsmouth Festivities (celebrating the life of Brunel) in the Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral.
Turner's painting, Rain, Steam and Speed, The Great Western Railway (1844) depicts a broad gauge engine steaming across Maidenhead Viaduct, one of Brunel's greatest achievements. The painting offers several perspectives to the viewer: a dark diagonal of bridge and train, crossing the Thames, intersects visions of tranquillity. To the left, far below, a fisherman sits in his skiff and to the right of the picture a ploughman turns his furrow. Ahead of the train a startled hare, the swiftest of creatures, leaps across the track.
In writing Rain, Steam and Speed, rather than follow a programmatic development of the title I have tried to convey a feeling of wide open spaces and pastoral repose in the opening section. Even the hare (a pair of clarinets) makes a playful appearance. In Turner's painting the 'iron horse' emerges from the distance, pressing powerfully forwards and so, from out of the calm, a clear rhythmic motif, pianissimo at first, rattles to a full orchestral crescendo, then gradually disappears from view.
Duration: 12'
I wrote Seraphim in memory of the broadcaster and journalist, Adam Raphael, who died in 1999 after a courageous battle with cancer. He was a man of great intellect, energy and kindness with a wonderful sense of fun, even when he was so ill. He was aware, of course, of the connection between his name and the Seraphim, the highest in the angel hierarchy, and he asked that the Handel aria with trumpet solo, Let the Bright Seraphim, should be played at his memorial service. In Seraphim I have used some motivic detail from the Handel arias.
Other musical ideas for each of the three movements were suggested by text from one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets, (no.4):
In the opening movement, 'Blow your trumpets,' the strings present a fast-moving, light textured background to the trumpet solo, which, at times, is sustained and at others moves with great agility. In 'Angells', the trumpet solo weaves long phrases into the linear violin solo line, supported by the ethereal sound string harmonics and ringing tones of the bowed vibraphone. In the more earthy 'Imagin'd Corners' the trumpet solo makes use of the arpeggio shapes from the aria, Let the Bright Seraphim, leading the work to an exuberant conclusion.
The London Mozart Players commissioned Seraphim which was especially written for the trumpeter, Paul Archibald and was first performed in Chiswick, London in 1999.
The premiere of the revised version was given on 27th August, 2002 by Paul Archibald and the Presteigne Festival Orchestra under the direction of George Vass in St Andrew's Church, Presteigne.