Howard Skempton

Howard Skempton was born in Chester in 1947, and has worked as a composer, accordionist, and music publisher. He studied in London with Cornelius Cardew from 1967 and Cardew helped him to discover a musical language of great simplicity. Since then he has continued to write undeflected by compositional trends, producing a corpus of more than 300 works - many pieces being miniatures for solo piano or accordion. Skempton calls these pieces 'the central nervous system' of his work.

Recent works by the composer include pieces for OKEANOS (Gleams and Fragments), New Noise (Random Girl), guitarist Tom Kerstens (Three Pieces), and Ensemble Bash (Slip-Stream). His second string quartet, 'Tendrils', won the prize for 'best chamber-scale composition' at the annual Royal Philharmonic Society awards in May 2005, and the chamber prize at the BACS 'British Composer Awards' in December 2005.

His work has grown consistently from its roots in the experimental tradition and is characterised by an extreme economy of means and a concentration on essentials. Working always with chosen limits, discovering internal detail within a defined structure, he is primarily concerned with the sound-material itself, rather than with expansion and development. His is a radically simple and direct music.

There are many works in his catalogue that would be a perfect accompaniment to choreography. For an introduction to his music however, try listening to:

• Catch - for string quartet. The drawn out motifs, and the interweaving of the lines; this all combines to form a perfectly crafted piece that was first performed in October 1991.
• Collected piano music - the Oxford 'Music for Dance' sampler CD lists three of Howard's piano works from this collection: 'First Prelude', 'Rumba', and 'Saltaire Melody'. Each piece in the collection has a different flavour, a distinct identity. What they have in common, however, is a united compositional approach: the concentration on essentials.