Orchestra

Some years ago I wrote a piece for string orchestra called “Music for the World”. It was a conscious emotional reaction to some disturbing political events that occurred in the world in the early 1990s.  I was interested in exploring the meaning of two contrasting human dimensions symbolised by two dissimilar musical textures, and an interacting space where a “there-ness”, represented by the the resonant body of the main orchestra, is opposed to a “here-ness” represented by the string quartet placed in its centre.

A string quartet plays in the centre of the stage being surrounded by the string orchestra.

Instrumentation: String Orchestra, Violoncello, Viola, 2 Violins

Piano Concerto was written for solo microtonal piano with orchestra and choir. In order to perform this work, the solo piano must be de-tuned microtonally, that is by using quarter-tones and smaller intervals according to a specific tuning chart prepared for the performance of this music. The solo piano is echoed by a second microtonal piano in the orchestra; the tuning of the second piano being slightly different from the tuning of the solo piano. The orchestral piano acts as the resonator of the solo piano. Throughout the work, the interaction and complementation of the two pianos is enriched and contoured by the rest of the orchestra and the choir.

Instrumentation: Orchestra, Choir, Piano

Microphones needed for woodwinds, brass and strings. Live electronics: 2 reverberation units.

Instrumentation: Orchestra

First prize winner of the 1992 City of Lucerne Cultural Prize for Music, Switzerland. Selected by the SPNM (British Society for Promotion of New Music) in 1993.

Instrumentation: Orchestra, Choir

In 2010 I began to revise an early orchestral work of mine that had been inspired by a poem by William Butler Yeats called A Dialogue of Self And Soul. The music of Hypothetical Questions is the result of increased dialectical propositions based upon the relics of those initial assertions.

Instrumentation: Orchestra

In ancient Chinese philosophy the interconnectedness of so-called contrary forces implies a principle of Oneness that stands above its apparent duality. For this reason, it would be incorrect to speak of Yin and Yang, as two separate forces. In fact, it is the Yin-Yang principle – without the “and” – that expresses such a unity while emphasising the flow of essentially one very same principle where duality is transcended by its intrinsic complementarity as an indivisible whole.

Instrumentation: Orchestra, Violoncello, Violin

First prize winner of the 1995 Surrey Sinfonietta Orchestral Composition Competition, England.

First performed by the Surrey Sinfonietta, conducted by Jonathan Butcher, at Croydon Concert Hall, London, 5th February 1995.

Instrumentation: Chamber Orchestra