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John Ritchie  

Concerto for Alto Saxophone

Duration: 17' 00" Year: 1998
for E flat saxophone and small orchestra

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Gillian Whitehead  

Pao

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 1981
for mezzo-soprano, piano and clarinet

Score Sample
Score Sample
  • Programme Note

    ‘Pao’ is the name given by Maori to two-lined epigrammatic songs which comment on a wide range of subjects such as love, war, politics or religion; often topical, often improvised. Most of the songs set here were collected in 1864 from Maori prisoners captured during the the land wars in the Waikato area south of Auckland. The couplets are not connected in any way except for the central group, for unaccompanied voice, concerning Pikeri, a character famous at the time for his escapades evading the police; in this instance, enforced separation during a love affair is charted.

    The English translations of these pao are used with the kind permission of the late Margaret Orbell, and come from her Maori Poetry, an introductory anthology (Heinemann, 1978).

    Pao was commissioned by the Northumberland-based Syrinx Trio, with financial assistance from Northern Arts; the first performance was given by Syrinx in Newcastle in 1981.

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John Rimmer  

Preludes of Light

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1987
for piano

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Nigel Keay  

serenade pour cordes/ Serenade for Strings

Duration: 17' 00" Year: 2001
for string orchestra

Score Sample
  • Programme Note

    The composition of the ‘Serenade for Strings’ was undertaken from 2001 and this work succeeds Nigel Keay’s ‘Viola Concerto’. The ‘Serenade’ is a four movement work of around 17 minutes duration in an essentially lyrical style. The initial inspiration for the ‘Serenade for String Orchestra’ came from being involved as a violist in a string orchestra in Caen, Lower Normandy, which was assembling a programme of String Serenades. ‘Serenade for Strings’ is dedicated to Valerie Baisnae who played violin in this group.

    From June 2001, work continued on the second movement in Paris and the writing was eventually finished in 2002. The first movement (‘Moderato’) starts very simply, which represents a tabula rasa where the lines accumulate one by one to construct the harmony, a detachment from what had been the heavy task of writing the ‘Viola Concerto’. ‘Serenade for Strings’ starts from nothing to create new harmonies.

    Concerning the idea of the serenade, today a very imprecise musical form, the idea of the evening or night is kept through using a musical language that is quite dark. The first movement is based on a short, recurring chromatic melody constructed of quavers, but which is surrounded by a more and more elaborate variation of the background material. The second movement (‘Allegro’) is constructed on a kind of moto perpetuo texture long interwoven lines, which evolve into increasingly ornamented and elaborate melodies. The third movement (‘Adagietto’) is the darkest movement, marked by an often low orchestral tessitura. The bare melodies create the most desperate and tender moments of this work. The fourth movement (‘Vivo’) makes a lively contrast to the third with an optimistic opening. Melodic motives are tossed around the orchestra as in a game. But towards the end the nostalgic themes of the first movement are recalled.

    “Comme tu me plairais, o nuit ! sans ces etoiles
    Dont la lumiere parle un langage connu !
    Car je cherche le vide, et le noir, et le nu !
    Baudelaire ‘Obsession’”

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