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	Programme Notes M - R


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Programme Notes M - R

Magnetic Field

The starting point for Magnetic Field was the string music of Purcell and in particular the Fantasia upon one note. Here Purcell ingeniously finds the most exotic harmony imaginable with the repeated note always a natural or deliberately dissonant part of it.

This gave me the idea of seeing how, using contemporary techniques, I could use a single note - in this case F - as a kind of magnetic force around which everything else revolves. So the piece begins with the players attempting to move away from the F. At first this is in barely discernable quarter tones, rather like the plant's early effort to open its leaves and spread out from a central system which we can only fully appreciate through the medium of speeded up film. This leads into a sequence of frozen, widely spread chords, derived from the Lament in Purcell's Dido & Aeneas.

As the music becomes faster & more agitated, so the F casts its spell by its very absence. Only on its return does the music slim down and we are briefly back, for the close, in the tentative world of the opening.

Meditations

Meditations for strings is Michael Berkeley's first acknowledged orchestral work. It was written at the beginning of 1975, in response to a commission from Colin Mawby and the Westminster Cathedral String Orchestra, who gave the first performance. In 1977, the work won the Guinness Prize for Composition.

The piece is called Meditations because its atmosphere is essentially contemplative, though the nature of the subject is far from being continuously passive. Another reason for the title is the inspiration behind the thematic material - though the actual melodies are original, they use rhythmic and melodic patterns suggested to Michael Berkeley by Gregorian chant, which he sang as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral.

The piece falls quite clearly into two sections bound together by the tolling ostinato figure in the bass of the orchestra, that begins and ends the work. since nearly all the new material that is introduced can be traced back to the music of the opening, the work is virtually monothematic. Each section begins with an Introduction followed by a statement of themes and a discussion, a coda rounds them off. Broadly speaking, part two considers what has passed and adds to it, but now the argument becomes more intense - an agitated solo violin attempts to move the conflict onto an altogether more abrasive and violent plane and soon the whole orchestra bursts into a fast animated passage. Gradually, via a recapitulation, the music becomes more settled, and the work ends as it began, with the repeated note E on the double basses.

Motets: Laetentur Coeli, Amen Dico Vobis, In Splendoribus Sanctorum

These three Latin Motets are amongst my earliest compositions and date back to the late 60s and early 70s when I made part of my living conducting and singing in church choirs. At that time I must have written at least a dozen sacred pieces for specific services and since they had to be performed with very little rehearsal the vocal lines had to be practical. But this is no bad thing for a young composer and I still have rather a soft spot for these short works with their simple but direct aspirations.

Laetentur Coeli has joyous and flowing lines while Amen Dico Vobis is more inward looking. Finally the voices conjure up the grandeur of peeling bells for In Splendoribus Sanctorum.

Music from Chaucer

Triton's Trumpets, The Grieving Queen, A Fanfare for the Huntsmen, The Sorrowful Knight, The Wakeful Poet

When Michael Berkeley wrote his Music from Chaucer it was in answer to a dual request; he had been commissioned by the BBC to write some incidental music for a radio version of Chaucer's dramatic work and had also been invited by Philip Jones to write a quintet for his ensemble. The resulting work is in 5 movements of widely differing character. The first, 'Triton's Trumpets', acts as an overture to the suite of pieces, is mainly rather rustic and, as its title implies, much of its music is in the nature of fanfares. 'The Grieving Queen' is a haunting slow waltz, introduced by an anguished phrase from the horn. The 'Fanfare for the Huntsmen' is very short and very vigorous. In the fourth movement, 'The Sorrowful Knight', each instrument expresses its individual sorrow, at first alone and then corporate in counterpoint. The music for the final movement, 'The Wakeful Poet', Chaucer himself chatters in a jaunty, innocent style.

Nocturne for flute, harp, and string trio

This little Nocturne belongs to a group of early pieces written at the beginning of the eighties, and was commissioned by the Ensemble Syrinx for their opening concert at the Purcell Room. Given the instruments available and the time of composition, the influence of France is perhaps not surprising. Indeed, the essence of the piece owes more to the sensations of the Mediterranean nights than those closer to home. A dreamy mood pervades with only the occasional click of the cicada, a brief moment of passion and a final awakening snap interrupting an otherwise languorous evening.

Odd Man Out

In 1993 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to explore the viola in two successive pieces - Odd Man Out and a concerto for Roger Benedict and the Philharmonia Orchestra. We are only now waking up to the full expressive power of the viola as a solo instrument. The relative paucity of the repertoire being an indication of how, until this century, the viola has been all too hidden in the shadow of its sister, the violin. Just as I was starting work on the first piece I heard a revelatory performance of the Bartok Concerto at the Proms and Yuri Bashmet's playing led me to re-think my approach to the instrument and its tessitura in both Odd Man Out and the Viola Concerto. In simple terms, the middle of the instrument has a sudden dip in power that is not there in the corresponding part of the violin compass. Moreover the high part of the viola register normally considered the domain of the violin has, in the hands of a good player, an exceptional and quite individual quality - penetrating yet still dark - that I find very beguiling.

Odd Man Out belongs to a group of pieces, like the opera Baa Baa Black Sheep and the wind quintet Catch Me If You Can, that all refer to children's games and in particular the often cruel form they often take. Far from being another viola joke, the title, Odd Man Out, suggests the isolation of a child from the group and its somewhat unsuccessful efforts at integration. The music, then, is no pyrotechnic test piece but rather a challenge in interpretation and musicality.

Odd Man Out was commissioned as a test piece for the 1994 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition at the Isle of Man.and I am much indebted to another fine viola player, Roger Chase, for looking over the original manuscript.

Organ Concerto

The concerto is not a concerto in the conventional sense, but is, more than anything else, a work of "ritual", inspired by my impressionistic days as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral, and in particular, the liturgy of Easter: the bringing of light after the darkness of Lent. The music begins with three trumpets quietly chanting out a phase - the bearers of light. The Orchestra flickers, and the flame finally catches, but it is ultimately used destructively. Thematically the music is derived from the opening call on the trumpets and the contrasting string phrase that occurs after the first climax. There is also a quotation from one of my motets which is particularly pertinent to Easter. It describes the three denials of Judas, which arrive like "diatonic lies" when set against the less specific language of the rest of the work. This chorale-like music is heard first on the violas and 'cello, next on brass. The actual writing for organ is very much concerned with texture. The instrument weaves in and out of the orchestra, sometimes complementing, sometimes contrasting ideas with it. On another level, it plays a role of overwhelming power.

The work is in a single movement, which rises and dies like a fire, leaving the trumpets playing the open chant in retrograde amongst the dying embers of the orchestra.

Persistent Memory

Persistent Memory is a little six minute drama commissioned for the 2004 Britten International Violin Competition. The title refers to a three-note motif in the Intermede movement of the Debussy Violin Sonata which I have always loved. This fragment obliquely informs the music as well as making more overt but fleeting appearances as the music unfolds.

Although the piano begins as the more aggressive partner and triggers the violin into animation, it is in fact the piano that finally provides a note of resolution, or, at least, partial resolution.

Piano Trio

My Piano Trio was commissioned by the Luton Music Club as part of its 35th anniversary celebrations, with funds provided by the Eastern Arts Association. There are relatively few contemporary piano trios, so I was particularly glad to receive a commission which allowed me to explore this medium.

Unlike most of the classical trios, mine is in a single movement though it falls into three distinct sections; basically, fast-slow-fast. The piece opens with a solemn, scene-setting glissando across the bottom strings of the piano. I have occasionally used this harp-like technique to add a special colour rather than to play an important thematic role. However, it does tend to appear at crucial moments in the work's development, which is fairly easy to follow since the first phrases on which everything else is based are simple and easily recognizable. The melodies tend to be modal and I have tried to marry them to a certain rhythmic impetuosity which, I hope, carries the music continuously forward.

Quartet Study

The Quartet Study was composed in 1987 in response to a commission from the City of Portsmouth for its 1988 International String Quartet Competition with funds provided by Southern Arts, the competition being won by the Vanburgh String Quartet.

Though it was obviously important for the music to test the abilities of the players both individually and as a quartet, I was determined to try and write, within an eight minute span, a self-contained work that actually said something as opposed to a purely technical show-piece. So while the music is technically demanding, the main challenge is one of interpretation, and at Portsmouth it was quite fascinating to see just what the various quartets made of it.

The score is in one movement and contrasts a rhythmic and loud motif with softer and more sustained music. Both ideas are related since they are derived from the same row of notes.

Re-Inventions

One of my favourite pastimes is playing through the keyboard music of J S Bach, and I am especially fond of his two and three-part inventions. I decided to arrange four of them for wind quintet, using my own ornamentation.

In the case of the second piece, in Eb, I had the impudence to be slightly dissatisfied with the ending, so restructured the piece by means of a repeated passage, to give a greater sense of conclusion. Having completed this task for my own amusement, Peter Cropper asked if I could also create some original material to complement the Bach for a concert that was being given by the Haffner Wind Quintet as part of the Sheffield Festival in May 1995. Using a modicum of common sense, I decided that it would be tempting providence to try to set any contrapuntal ideas of my own against those of Johann Sebastian. So instead, I have given each of the instruments a short line that meditates on what has just passed, or on what is just about to happen. However, it was always my intention that the music could either be performed as a continuous whole or as straightforward transcriptions without the interlinking commentaries.

The Romance of the Rose

This piece takes the form of a theme and variations and was first written for a BBC radio dramatisation of the early French poem, 'Romaunt de la Rose', thus dealing with the gestures and rituals of courtly love. The first public performance was given on November 5, 1982 by the Orchestra of St Paul's School in St John's Smith Square, London.