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Programme Notes

And winds, austere and pure (1993)

for choir and piano duet

1. Blows the wind today - Robert Louis Stevenson
2. Inversnaid - Gerard Manley Hopkins
3. The Solitary Reaper - William Wordsworth

For this work, commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Chamber Choir, I have chosen three contrasted evocations of Scotland, one by a Scot in a distant land, the others by two distinguished visitors. Blows the wind today is also my own tribute to Stevenson, since 1994 marks the centenary of his death.

These extracts from Stevenson (Edinburgh 1878) demonstrate one aspect of his ambivalent attitude towards his native country - in particular to the Edinburgh climate in which he was brought up:

`For all who love shelter and the blessings of the sun, who hate dark wather and perpetual tilting against squalls, there could scarcely be found a more unhomely and harassing place of residence... And yet the place establishes an interest in people's hearts... go where they will, they take a pride in their old home.'

Stevenson spent the last seven years of his life in Samoa, in a climate more suited to his delicate constitution, but where he wrote this heartfelt poem about his native country. In setting the poem I have used sparse textures, the choir sings only in octaves or unison throughout. Only at the words `My heart remembers how!' and `Be it granted me to behold you again' does the harmony in the piano expand expressively.

I have tried to match the strength and vigour of Hopkins' description of the mountain burn with fast moving, resonant, and hard-edged chords in the piano, marked to be played tumultuoso. The choral writing is brighter here but I have again used relatively sparse textures in the voices (the working is mainly two part) to try and give an impression of strength and resonance.

In the Wordsworth setting I have given the narration to the men. The women, divided throughout, have a wordless vocalise with hints of my idea of a Scottish folk tune.

Double Variations

Edward Harper's concertante work for oboe,basson and orchestral wind ensemble, was commissioned by the Royal Northern College of Music School of Wind and Percussion and premièred by the Wind Ensemble on 12 August 1989 in the opening concerto of the International Double Reed Society Conference held at the College. The soloists were David Theodore and John Orford, conductor Timothy Reynish; the radio première was broadcast on 3 October 1989 by the same artists.

Edward Harper frequently uses architectural forms of earlier composers as a source for his own structures. Here his solution for the puzzle of combining two soloists with wind ensemble is to adopt one of Haydn's favourite forms, that of the double variations.

The two themes are very different; that for the wind orchestra is rhythmically bold, harmonically simple with its reliance on major and minor thirds, while that of the soloists is lyrical, rhapsodical, and more far-ranging harmonically. Orchestra and soloists scarcely overlap, until with a growing rhythmic intensity in the orchestral interludes, shadowed by the soloists who begin to explore the top range of the tessitura and more brilliant passage-work, the emotional climax of the work is reached, a unison outburst for all of the woodwind instruments. The carefully controlled pulse now at last relaxes into a lengthy coda.

Fantasia III

This work was commissioned by the Albany Brass Consort, with funds made available by the Scottish Arts Council, and first performed on 3 November 1977 at St Cecilia's Hall, Edinburgh. The piece is based on the first of William Byrd's funeral songs for Sir Philip Sydney, Come to me grief for ever, from the Psalmes, Sonets and Songs of 1588.

Fantasia V for Chamber Orchestra:

Passacaglia on EH3 7DC

Fantasia is a title I have given to pieces fairly free in form and based, in varying degrees, on pre-existing material. (Fantaisa II for strings, for instance, uses the music of Henry Purcell; Fantasia III for brass takes William Byrd as its starting point.) This work, however, is in the strict form of a passacaglia. As a token of appreciation of the Post Office sponsorship of this piece I have expressed the series of notes on which it is based in the form of a post code. (I should add that the post code is fictitious, being an amalgamation of my wife and me, although EH are of course the initial letters of the Edinburgh code.) The work is continuous, lasting about 15 minutes, with lively and festive outer sections and a gentler middle section which develops the "child" music from my opera Hedda Gabler. Another Post Office connection and also a tribute to one of our most distinguished composers appears in the trumpet after the short introduction - a quotation from the music Benjamin Britten wrote for the G.P.O. documentary film "The Night Mail".

Fantasia V was commissioned by the St Magnus Festival, Orkney Islands, with funds from the Post Office and the Scottish Arts Council. It was first performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Cleobury at St Magnus Cathedral on 24 June 1985.

In Memoriam Kenneth Leighton

This is a single movement work. It is intended as a memorial to Kenneth Leighton, distinguished composer, pianist and teacher, who was the Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University from 1970 until his death in 1988. The notes, E, B, (H in German) G with which the cello starts are taken from Leighton's name. There are three clearly defined sections. The first is dark and brooding and aims to express a sense of spiritual desolation and loss. The low repeated notes in the piano part are marked 'bell-like'. The mood gradually becomes more animated and the music slowly becomes transformed into the middle-section - a toccata-like passage of the type often used by Leighton (though there is no attempt to imitate his style). Here the music is angry and violent but, at the climax, the bell-like notes of the piano reappear, now at the top register of the instrument. A quiet, contemplative final section follows, recapitulating but transforming much of the material of the first section.

Intrada after Monteverdi

This is an arrangement of a piece originally written to give a lively start to the concert given by the New Music Group of Scotland in the 1982 Edinburgh International Festival, a concert designed to have an Italian flavour. A version for chamber orchestra was first performed in October 1983 by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a concert celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on their West German tour in 1988. It was arranged for full symphony orchestra and performed by the Scottish National Orchestra in 1987. Bright and celebratory in character, the Intrada is based on, and eventually quotes, the Toccata which precedes Monteverdi's Orfeo.

The Lamb

for soprano, chorus and orchestra

This work is intended as a celebration of the mystery and joy of birth and early childhood and is dedicated to my wife and our two young children. The texts were chosen primarily because of the way they reflect the universal joy of creation, rather than their more specific religious or liturgical function. I have used the Scots translation of the opening lines of the Magnificat - a wondrous anticipation of birth - because it gives opportunities not offered by an English version. The music's opening mood of darkness, of searching, of gradual growth, is much enhanced by the dark coloured vowels of 'Non lauds my saul' and the words 'an my spirit stounds wi joy' have a bounce and vigour which I have tried to capture as the music finally emerges into the light of day. The soprano soloist appears at the words 'an behaud, frae this time furth' and reflects ecstatically on the text, quietly supported by unaccompanied choir. The words 'an my spirit stounds wi joy' are then repeated to form a lively conclusion the first section.

A short orchestral interlude leads to the next section, a setting of the first verse of William Blake's 'The Lamb'. This aims at lightness and delicacy of sound and is scored for the soloist with women's voices. The entry of the tenors with words 'I heard a little child' marks the beginning of the setting of Walter de la Mare's The Universe which is mainly scored for male voices. As the men sing the last words of The Universe so the women sing the words taken from Magnum Misterium and this text is then taken up by the full choir and soloist, unaccompanied. Distant repeated brass notes usher in the setting of the second verse of Blake's The Lamb in which music used for the first verse is reworked and developed to involve the whole choir. At the final words of the poem, 'Little Lamb, God bless thee!' the music used in the opening section at the words 'an my spirit stounds wi joy' returns, and is the basis of a jubilant final section.

Ricercari in Memoriam Luigi Dallapiccola

This work was completed at the beginning of July 1975 and is intended as a memorial to one of Italy's most distinguished composers. The sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ricercare often had a rhapsodic or improvisatory character while embodying strict contrapuntal writing. the combination of apparently spontaneous musical expression and rigidly applied technique of one of the most important aspects of Dallapiccola's style. The initial idea for this piece came from his opera Il Prigioniero, where there are three passages marked Ricercare. While there is no attempt to imitate either the style or structure of this piece, the material of Ricercari in Memoriam Luigi Dallapiccola is governed by the same conception of free melodic expression within a highly organized formal plan.

There are three ricercari played without a break, and all of them derive their material from Dallapiccola's music, although there are no literal quotations. Ricercari I is a meditation on the last movement of Quaderno Musicale de Annalibera and ideally should start as the notes of the piano piece are dying away. Ricercari II is violent in mood, dominated by the trumpet and horn. The material is a fragmentation of the theme in Il Prigioniero associated with the prisoners words, "O Lord, help me to walk". After the staccato chords of the climax, the music gradually becomes calmer over a quiet sustained B minor triad on the violin and viola (also a significant chord in Il Prigioniero). Ricercare III is quietly lyrical and the mood is emphasised by quotations from the Benedictus of the Mass, Assumpta est Maria, by that most serene of Italian composers, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.