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You wait ages for a new piece…
…and then two come along at once.
Friday 27th April sees the performance of my two most recent pieces as part of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland‘s annual week of new music; PLUG. The lunchtime concert at 1pm features, amongst other things, my Postlude to Nightfishing for solo violin and the evening concert at 7:30pm includes the brand-new My Life in Ventriloquism for solo clarinet.
The theme for this year’s PLUG is “Postludes”. Composers at the Conservatoire were asked to write short pieces that somehow reflected upon works performed in previous PLUG festivals, the only catch being these originals are not being performed again this year. In the case of my postlude, which is based on Oliver Searle‘s Nightfishing, original work and postlude are divorced by a couple of years (but you can hear to Ol’s piece here – recommended listening!). I was attracted to the uneasy stillness at the beginning of this piece; instead of borrowing its dots I borrowed its atmosphere and took it from there. Postlude to Nightfishing will be performed by Darragh Morgan.
I am a ventriloquist of sorts (gottle o’ geer), aren’t all composers? We are forever throwing our voices and speaking through others. My Life in Ventriloquism is a quick foray into an art form where the relationship between act and audience is fundamentally different to that of the concert hall. Ventriloquism as entertainment relies upon an acknowledged deceit and the suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience (it’s a puppet!) whilst the concert hall and related industry is mostly concerned with notions of authenticity and truth. These differences between art forms interest me greatly. More on ventriloquism in a future post but for now these ideas have spawned an 11-minute virtuosic clarinet piece which will be played on the 27th by Jenny Stephenson.
I’m not sure what other pieces are on the bill, although the lunchtime concert will feature a work by Richard Ayres and the evening performance includes new music for new films made at the RCS. More details on the performances page when I know them.
New recording
A recording of my recent piece Struction (how I attempted… is now available here. It’s a bootleg-esque recording from the first performance given by Red Note.
A little confession: I’m not entirely sure this piece works as an audio recording. If you do listen, bear in mind that the voice of the composer is disembodied – the “composer” isn’t in the room and his voice is delivered through loudspeakers. Without pictures, however, you won’t see the physical exertions of the ensemble as they react to this voice. It’s deliberately physical music.
As normal, Struction was conceived as a concert piece (and these days I’m always thinking about the relationship between music its context) and hearing this recording reinforces my belief that live musical performance and audio recordings are two completely different mediums, each with their idiosyncrasies. Why do we so often consider them the same when composing?
Gig!
Like new music? Like Edinburgh? Like intimate, red-painted concert halls? Then you’ll like this…
