Download Composition Section - Springboard Festival

Composition Section
Sat 23 March 2013
Brighton and Hove High School
Adjudicator
Gregory Rose
Composer/conductor Gregory Rose studied with two former pupils of Schoenberg, Hans Jelinek and Egon
Wellesz, and his father, Bernard Rose. He has composed orchestral, instrumental and choral music and several
of his pieces have been published. In 1998 he completed the unfinished Violin Concerto of Johann Nepomuk
Hummel and he won a British Composer Award in 2006 with his Missa Sancta Pauli Apostoli. His most ambitious
project yet, a music-theatre piece called Danse macabre, premiered in Estonia in 2011.
As a conductor, Gregory Rose has worked with orchestras and choirs throughout Europe and the Far East,
these orchestras including the Finnish Radio Symphony, St Petersburg Symphony, London Philharmonic, his
own Jupiter Orchestra & Singers, and CoMA London Ensemble. He has conducted many operas and worked
closely with composers such as Stockhausen, Cage and Steve Reich, and recently he collaborated in the
premiere recording of John Cage’s iconic Song Books. He has arranged and conducted for Diana Ross,
Linda Rondstadt of Music & Dance, and Madness and is a professor of conducting at Trinity Laban
Conservatoire.
Yamaha piano supplied by Brighton Piano Warehouse
Piano technician: Mark Beglin
CoMA - promoting contemporary music through participation
CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) is at the heart of new music in the UK, providing opportunities for amateur
musicians to take an active part in the performance of works by some of the brightest new composers alongside
that of established figures.
By maintaining a non-auditioning, grass roots approach, an uncompromising commitment to playing music that is
adventurous and challenging, and continually developing our open access events and education programme,
CoMA is building audiences and a body of musicians with the skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to perform some
of the most exciting and rewarding new music being created today.
CoMA runs amateur contemporary music ensembles throughout the UK plus workshops and events, and has an
expanding international programme through ensembles it has established in Maastricht (Holland) and Limerick
(Ireland). CoMA’s music collection of over a thousand works is a unique resource for both amateur and
professional ensembles as well as for schools and youth based orchestras.
23 March 2013
Library
Adjudicator: Gregory Rose
10:30 am
Workshop of compositions with adjudication after each piece (order of play to be decided on
the day)
Composer
Name of Piece
Robin Haigh
Arcus
Arcus was originally written as one of the assignments for the composition course at Goldsmiths
University of London, while studying with the composer Paul Robinson. It is the most systematic
piece that i've written, and the strong forward drive produced by the violin's relentless semiquavers
forms the foundation of the piece. Arcus could best be described as a post-minimal work, with my
main models being John Adams, Nico Muhly and Louis Andriessen.
Composer
Name of Piece
Basil Richmond
Kouros
Dating from the archaic period of Greek classical antiquity Kouroi have been found in many temple
sanctuaries throughout Greece, mostly those dedicated to Apollo of whom they may have been a
representation. At any rate, their stylisation gives them a still, unearthly quality which would have
lent itself to the focus of prayer and ritual. This piece is a musical embodiment of such devotion and
although it doesn't pretend to recreate the music of ancient Greece, which would be absurd, it does
cast a glance back to an older system of scales and tonality and the instrumentation is chosen, if
somewhat tenuously, to reflect a shared history; the syrinx, therefore, becomes the flute, the aulos,
the oboe and the kithara, the piano.
Musically, the piece is built out of a few, simple ideas stated at the beginning which interweave
throughout. The intention is to create a hypnotic and trance-like pattern of sound which, 'though still,
is yet always changing.
Composer
Name of Piece
Michael Stephenson
Children's Games
Children's games are a serious business.
This piece developed from a simple starting point of 4 crotchets played by all 6 instruments in
common time and in the grounded key of C major. I had no real idea or plan for the music, having
no concept of where the opening 4 crotchets would lead, and in fact they did not become the basis
of the work even though a repeated and related 4-note 'theme' did eventually emerge.
As to time-length: I was aiming for the prescribed 4 minutes - maybe that's why the figure 4 plays
such a significant part in the piece i.e. 4/4 time, quarter notes, 4-note themes - but the composition
took me by surprise by ending at half that time, and who was I to argue?
The title 'Children's Games' came after the piece was finished. I had not set out to compose a
'programme' piece but I wanted a 'descriptive' title - rather than, say, a number or a technical phrase
e.g. Sextet No. 1 - and I felt the music had elements of an intense and energetic playground game
that starts off tentatively with a set of rules, then becomes faster and more furiously relentless until,
break over, the bell rings.
Composer
Name of Piece
John Sturt
Winter's Pavane
Winter's Pavane was written during the snowfall at the turn of 2012/2013, and contains within its
DNA the sparseness of a snowbound landscape. The piece moves very slowly, with sparse
orchestration from the outset. The first main theme is introduced on the Piano, which is then taken
up with the remaining instruments: the flute, violin and clarinet. After this, a brief bridge passage
leads towards a modulation which darkens the atmosphere, as if it is the advent of the winter’s early
evening. The main theme returns, and reaches a climax. At this point, the dynamics are dampened,
and the piece descends into a final sighing repose, sinking into the depths of winter.
12:15 pm BREAK
Library
Adjudicator: Gregory Rose
12:30 pm
Performance of all four pieces (order to be decided on the day):-
Arcus by Robin Haigh
Kouros by Basil Richmond
Children's Games by Michael Stephenson
Winter's Pavane by John Sturt
1:30 pm SESSION ENDS