SCA SEVERNSIDE COMPOSERS ALLIANCE Welcome to the first issue of our new quarterly SCA newsletter. The aim is to provide a platform enabling members to share their own news and ideas, and to keep everyone up to date with SCA projects. Therefore, if you have any suggestions for how the format or content could be improved please don’t hesitate to let us know. In this issue we report on the two recent SCA concerts: Midsummer Music at Hawkwood and Severnside Strings; We interview new member Jonathan Palmer who looks back at his career; review a BBC concert celebrating the 80 th anniversary of former SCA Honorary President David Bedford; provide some thought provoking composerly ideas; information on upcoming opportunities for SCA composers, and of course, a roundup of members news. We hope you find it worthwhile. David Greenhorne - Secretary NEWSLETTER Autumn 2017
Transcript
SCASEVERNSIDECOMPOSERS
ALLIANCE
Welcome to the first issue of our new quarterly SCA
newsletter. The aim is to provide a platform enablingmembers
to share their own news and ideas, and to keep everyone up to
datewith SCAprojects. Therefore, if you have any suggestions
for how the format or content could be improved please don’t
hesitate to let us know.
In this issue we report on the two recent SCA concerts:
Midsummer Music at Hawkwood and Severnside Strings; We
interview newmember Jonathan Palmer who looks back at his
Midsummer Music at Hawkwood was our firstcollaboration with Hawkwood College near Stroudfeaturing a concert of violin and piano music withMadeleine Mitchell and Geoffrey Poole, preceded by apractical composers’ workshop—a wonderful day ofcreative music making in a beautiful and peaceful setting.
“We received fantastic support fromAliciaCarey,CEOofHawkwood”, says JolyonLaycock “who expressed stronginterest in continuing the relationship with SCA, as a wayof developing her ownprogrammeof contemporarymusicperformance and composition. In many ways SCA’sobjectives fit well with the ethos of Hawkwood with itsemphasis on the practical creative arts, environmentalsustainability, spirituality and wellbeing.”
Composers WorkshopThe programme began with the composers’ workshop ledby Clement Jewitt and Jolyon Laycock, in whichparticipants explored and improvised musical ideas usingeither their own instruments or made use of a variety ofethnic instruments provided by Clement, including hisown digeridoo.
ConcertFollowing a two hour break, when people could picnic inthe grounds, the recital by Madeleine Mitchell andGeoffrey Poole started at 6.00pm. In the first half of theprogramme, four works for violin and piano by SCAcomposerswere featured:TrevorJones’AtGaninaYama- seven movements based on Russian Orthodoxplainchants; David Greenhorne’s Guan Yin - writtenfollowing a visit to a Buddhist temple in Singapore
dedicated toGuanYin,ClementJewitt’sCantodescribedas “tending towards the condition of silence,” and JolyonLaycock’s The Persistence of Memory which takes theformof a set of variationson themelodyofoneof the songsfromhis cycle “DarkSeas”written for SarahLeonard. Thetitle is taken from a painting by Salvador Dali.
The second half began with a masterful performance ofBeethoven’s Violin Sonata no.10 in G op 96 (1812) - theworkwhich first broughtMadeleine andGeoff together asa duo and concluded with the first performance ofGeoffrey Poole’s Four Promises for solo piano. This isthe latest in Geoff’s on-going series of piano miniatures,begun in 2001, based on one of the 64 gua (or‘Hexagrams’) of the world’s most ancient book, theChinese I Ching (“Book of Changes”).
With only three days to go before Midsummer’s Day, weenjoyed daylight well into the evening and as a result theconcert took place against the breathtaking background ofthe Stroud valley seen through the panoramic side-window of Hawkwood’s main performance hall.
This concert brought our fruitful collaboration withMadeleine Mitchell to a fitting conclusion; Acollaboration comprising four concerts and featuringworks by eleven SCA composers.
Severside Strings was an event in two parts: the first, ayoung composer's string quartet workshop with therenowned Carducci Quartet, held at GloucesterAcademy of Music, a junior conservatoire for thesouthwest working with talented young musicians fromthe age of 5 to 18, and the second part, an evenings publicconcert held at Gloucester United Reformed Churchfeaturing Gloucestershire Academy of Music AdvancedStrings and Senior Strings with The Carducci StringQuartet under the direction of conductor Glyn Oxley -Gloucester Academy’s Director of Music - featuringwork by SCA Composers.
As Jolyon commented, “This event was the culminationof many months of negotiation, planning and fund-raising. We were extremely fortunate to secure theparticipation of the Carducci Quartet”.
The Quartet WorkshopDuring the workshop the Quartet worked on singlemovements submitted by Blasio Kavuma, MatthewClark, Eden Suanders and Dan Gilchrist.Approximately half an hour was allocated to each
composer's work.
“I think the workshop was excellent - Having thequartet give a wonderful performance of my piece,listening to the pieces of the others, and hearing thequartet's comments were all good things.”
- Dan Gilchrist
The ConcertAnattentive audience enjoyed the eveningconcertwhichfeaturedworks by four SCAcomposers, played by the 16young instrumentalists of the Advanced String Group ofGloucestershireAcademy, strengthened and encouragedby the Carducci Quartet: Robin Davies - Andante,Geoffrey Poole - Nairobi Sky, Frank Harvey - Lamentfor Lost Content and Jolyon Laycock - In Bruton Town.The remainder of the programme consisted of music forstrings by Mozart, Telemann and Handel.
Severnside StringsFriday 7 July 2017
The Carducci QuartetMatthew Denton and MichelleFleming Violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin Viola and Emma Denton Cello
After the concert, Jolyon commented: “Our thanks aredue to GAM director Glyn Oxley for his unwaveringcommitment to the project and for his very skilfuldirection of the final performances. Glyn has expresseda strong interest in continuing the relationshipwith SCAand it is to be hoped that some of theworks that were notselected this time (10 works were submitted by SCAcomposers) will find a place in future programmes.”
Glyn Oxley commented: “I thought it was of hugebenefit to the students to be able to work with newmusical genres and be inspired by an internationallyrenowned String Quartet. It was great to have the inputof the composer to help realise their works.” Glyn alsogathered the following responses from the students whotook part in “Severnside Strings”:
What did they think of the music by the four SCAcomposers?Liked most of it, Enjoyed it, Good doing somethingdifferent
What did they learn by playing it?Improved rhythm reading especially in Nairobi Sky;How to see music through the eyes of the composer.
Was it challenging enough, or too difficult?Some more challenging than others but quite good,about right, good for me
What benefit did they get from playing alongsidemembers of the Carducci quartet?Sounded a lot better than normal. It was a greatrehearsal. It was inspiring. I really enjoyed it andwould love to be part of a Quartet when I am older.
What benefit did they get from the involvement ofthe composers?It was interesting to hear them talk about their pieces.
BBC3's Hear and Now PaysTribute to David Bedford with aperformance of Stars End
August would have been the 80th birthday of eminent Britishcomposer David Bedford who was an influential HonoraryPresident of Severnside Composers Alliance from 2005 until hisdeath in 2011.
To mark this anniversary BBC Radio 3’s weekly New MusicprogrammeHear andNowbroadcast a performance of his StarsEnd by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Edwin Outwater(conductor), whichwas recorded earlier in the year atHoddinottHall, Cardiff, as part of its Great Brits series.
David Bedford originally came to prominence as a composerwithin the emergingEnglish experimental scene of the 1960s, butbegan, later thatdecade, to forgeaparallel career inundergroundrock music, playing keyboards and arranging for the likes ofKevin Ayres, Elvis Costello,Madness and others. Later in life hecomposed for more conventional forces and Stars End, a largescale work from 1974, represents an amalgam of all these trendsbeing a piece for conventional orchestra and rock musicians. Itwas commissionedbyRichardBranson for his newVirgin recordlabel to feature the improvisatory talents of the then in vogueMike Oldfield (guitar and bass guitar) who’s Tubular Bells wassuch a huge success for Virgin records, and which wassubsequently orchestrated for symphony orchestra by DavidBedford, also for Virgin Records. Stars End is in two sectionstimed to fit neatly oneither sideof a 12inchvinyldisk. (I still havemy copy somewhere in the attic.)
It was wonderful to hear it again, after many years, with itsalternating periods of spacious calm, quirky randomness and (asDavid Bedford called it) “pandemonium”. It evoked—for me—nostalgic baby-boomer associations: flared trousers, flower-power shirts, long hair and joss sticks. I’m not sure whether thatwasmymemory playing tricks or the piece’s obvious and timelymusical influences—Ligeti, early minimalism, experimentalmusic and guitar hero. But a powerful, arresting and hugelyenjoyablepiecenonetheless. AndanicegestureofHearandNowto honour the 80th anniversary of this “Great Brit”.
David Bedfordo
Some key works:
-Music for Albion Moonlight
-Star Clusters, Nebulae and Places inDevon
-Instructions for Angels
-With 100 Kazoos...-The Song of the White Horse
-The Tentacles of the Dark Nebula
Stars End CD, Virgin - CDV2020Published by Universal Edition 1974
Piano Music by Steven Kings and Jean Hasse is to be
featured in a concert: One hand, Two hands, Four hands! -
Piano music played by Steven Kings & Christopher
Northam. The concert takes place at BristolMusic Club,
76 St Paul’s Road, Clifton, Bristol on Saturday 30th
September2017at7.30pm. Theprogrammealso includes
music by Berkeley, Clementi, Debussy, Milhaud, Ravel
and Scriabin. Tickets £12 (£6 for under-18s) available on
the door
Earlier this year David Greenhorne’s Arc for cello andensemble was premiered by Kokoro (Mark featuringcellist Lionel Handy at Victoria Rooms Bristol. Arcwasone of 4 works commissioned as part of the EU fundedOld Hispanic Officium research project undertaken byBristol University.The other commissioned works were by MauroAgagliate (Italy), Matias Vestergård Hansen (Holland)and Maranda Dreissen (Holland).
The concert: Strange Worlds: The Concert - The Sound ofAngela Carter organized by Julian Leaks’NewMusic inthe Southwest at the Royal West of England Gallery(RWA) featured anewly commissionedwork from Jean-PaulMetzger:Under theWorld, aworkwhich transposedthe structure and imagery of Anna Maria PacecospaintingHades II intostrikingmusic forclarinetandcello.The concert also included works commissioned for the
occasion by Sadie Harrison - The Murder, for trio of
clarinet,marimbaandcello, andDavidGreenhorne…in
theCompany ofWolves for clarinet,marimba andnarrator,
There was quite a buzz around the jazz composition
world this year when Jacob Collier introduced the
concept of negative harmony – a term he appears to
have lifted from the work of Swiss musicologist and
composer Ernst Levy.
Negative harmony is created—within tonal music—
by inverting all intervals in a chord or scale. The
following simple example should make it clear. In
example A we have a C major scale and underneath
its negative version which – in this case, as Collier
usually does – is transposed up a 5th. Although this
looks like C minor it is, in this context, G phrygian -
G being the tonal centre. Example B shows how,
using this material harmonically, we can create the
negative version of a V – I cadence in C major.
The resulting negative harmony version cadence
looks pretty ordinary but as Collier points out the
equivalent pitches retain their gravitational pull,
albeit in the opposite direction. So the leading note
B rising to the tonic in the positive version is
replaced by the Ab falling to its tonic G in the
negative version, and the stable G in the positive
version is replaced by the stable C in the negative.
Thus the music works in the same way, albeit a
darker shadow version of the original.
There are a number of composers and arrangers still
picking the bones out of the idea, including such
luminaries as Herbie Hancock – its usefulness will
no doubt be established in the fullness of time.
The use of mirrors - in the form of inversions and retrogrades –particularly in serial music - is part of the composer’s toolkit 101.But here are two more applications of this concept from widelydifferent parts of the musical scene:
MIRRORS- Negative Harmony and Symmetrical Harmonic Fields
1. Negative Harmony
Composerly Stuff
2. Symmetrical Harmonic Fields
The second idea based on the concept of mirrors is
from the late Jonathan Harvey—his so-called
symmetrical harmonic fields that he first started using
in the church opera Passion and Resurrection (1981).
Harvey says:
“…I lit on the idea of symmetrical harmony around acentral axis, a floating, weaving world freed from the darkgravity of bass-oriented music … this axial feeling becamemy preferred technique of harmony for many yearsafterward.”
Rather than the harmony appearing to rise from, and
grounded in a bass, it fans out symmetrically from a
mid-range axial pitch. Harvey claims that this mid-
range harmonic focus—not dominated by the bass—
was the great innovation of modernist music, first
introduced as a result of an “urge for new expression,”
its floating state was, he claims, first glimpsed by
Schoenberg and then realized by Webern.
For a particular piece Harvey would set up a number
of symmetrical harmonic fields each with its own
character. These provided repertoires through which
he could, as it were, pour his melodic and harmonic
thinking. "Thet enabled me to write rather easily and
rather fast ensuring coherence." In this way he was able
to ensure his music achieved his aesthetic aim: "What I
seek is music that is as fresh as an improvisation and yet has
not a sound out of place."
Below is a typical example of a symmetrical harmonic
