of Dartmoor and raises the cultural profile of Devon & Cornwall.
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Stevie Wishart ILLUMINATIONS Premiere Sunday 1st June, 2003 At the Chard Festival Holyrood School, Chard, Somerset |
Stevie Wishart is best known for her research into medieval bowed string instruments and performance of early European music and as a performer of the hurdy-gurdy.
This work is scored for seventeen string players, each performing his or her individual part.
It is inspired by the woodland and moors of Devon and Cornwall but also explores the re-awakening of historic music in a contemporary context. Stevie Wishart and members of the Ten Tors Orchestra will also be working with students at Bodmin Community College during the week preceding the concert.
Second performance 20th September, 2003, St Petroc’s Church, Bodmin, Cornwall
| Michael
Whitcroft RHAPSODY FOR GUITAR & STRINGS First fully professional performance by Simon Dinnigan & Ten Tors Orchestra Saturday 8th February, 2003 St Andrew’s Church, Plymouth |
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Mike Whitcroft writes:
“In the spring 2001 I was asked to write a piece for the virtuoso
guitarist Simon Dinnigan. After attending several of his performances
I could not help but be impressed by his impeccably tasteful musical phrasing
and phenomenal technique and set about composing a work that would hopefully
combine the two.
Rhapsody for Guitar and Strings is a single movement work that utilises the tremolo technique on a guitar that has been tuned down to D minor. It begins with sombre stirring strings before the guitar makes its entry with a lyrical tremolo theme. It briefly modulates into the tonic major key before entering the arpeggiated development. This concludes with the strings alone, moving through a choral like descending suspension passage with solo violin lamenting the original theme before a brief reprise of the introduction, followed by the return of the guitar throughout the recapitulation”.
How would Mike describes the
mood of this piece:
“Soulful guitar tremolo suffused by stirring strings, delicately
drawing the listener through subdued passages of lyrical yearning, ethereal
enlightenment and reflective reconciliation”.
See Concerts 8th February, 2003
WHITE HAZE
Premiere Saturday 21st
September, 2002
St Petroc's Church, Bodmin, Cornwall
"White Haze will be a film score to your mind's eye".
White Haze is scored for strings requiring a minimum ensemble of eight violins, two violas, two cellos and double bass. The premiere is performed by a group of seventeen players. A further five performances take place around the region during 2002 and 2003.
“ … film score to the minds eye”.
“What does White
Haze mean? It is a generic description of the intangible. The almost seen.
Almost heard. A slightly out of reach dream- or a fleeting moment acknowledged
only after it has passed. White Haze is also as natural as a cloud that
evaporates before your eyes on a July morning. Like a déjà
vu, where one’s sense of self momentarily merges with the surroundings
and the moment. By definition unknowable, White Haze is best described
by example … sitting on a cliff top viewing the sea – one
might note the apparently motionless ship on the horizon. Moments later,
perhaps after drifting lazily into other thoughts, one is mildly stirred
by a subtle shift in the landscape. A question hangs in ones mind I even
self-doubt threatens slightly – until we realise the ship, still
motionless, has moved. This is a White Haze moment”.
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'NEW DAWN - DARTMOOR SUNRISE'
Premiered 29th May, 2000 at St Paul's Church,
Yelverton, Devon
The piece attempts to capture the spirit and cultural identity of the Moor with many musical references to the folklore and history of the Dartmoor National Park. The first half of the concert, Warlock's 'Capriol Suite' and songs from Bernstein's 'Westside Story', were also arranged by Roger Bolton (sung by baritone Simon Tunkin). The idea was to incorporate a Millennium feel to the whole occasion.
Roger Bolton made two versions of 'New Dawn-Dartmoor Sunrise': a chamber orchestra version for strings, flute, oboe, cor anglais (or clarinet), 2 bassoons, 2 horns, two trumpets and percussion with concertino violins, viola and cello and a second 'touring' version for 13 strings also with concertino violins, viola and cello. The piece received 6 performances during 2000.
This was Simon Ible and Roger Bolton's third collaboration: the first was playing in a Jazz Band live on BBC1's Saturday Superstore and then at the Opening Ceremony of the European Youth Olympics in Bath (1995). For the latter they had the combined forces of the Bath City Orchestra, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, a choir, soprano soloist, 150 dancers, lasers and fireworks! The music is published by Sony Music.
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'WHITE BIRD'
Premiered 26th May, 2001 at the Central Methodist Church, Launceston, Cornwall
The appearance of the White Bird to the Oxenham's meant there would soon be a death in the family. The story is told fully in William Crossing's Folklore and Legends of Dartmoor.
The work is scored for a 13-piece string ensemble and mezzo-soprano vocalise. The premiere performance was sung by Suzanne Manuell. A second performance will be given on 22 September 2001 at St Peter's Church, North Tawton, Devon with mezzo-soprano Joanne Thomas.
"I have told the story in music using scenes as though making an imaginary ballet. Crossing mentions only two names - Sir James and his daughter Margaret. I have added the others. The singer takes the part of the White Bird with the violas and violins. Sir James, the father, is played by solo viola. Simon, the young squire, is represented by the full orchestra and occasionally by the cello. Margaret is represented by the violins. Lame Luke, the unfortunate villain, is played by the double bass". Clive Jenkins
The Ten Tors Orchestra has also performed Clive Jenkins Romance for Viola and Strings (soloist Ken Aiso)
and two songs: 'Ave Maria' and 'The Early Train' (words by John Bartlett.
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Clive Jenkins
'HEART OF DARTMOOR' OVERTURE
Premiere 22nd December, 2001 at St Eustachius Church, Tavistock, Devon
This new concert overture is inspired by Dartmoor landscapes and is scored for a 28-piece chamber orchestra of strings, flute, oboes, clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets and percussion.
Simon Ible and Clive Jenkins worked together on the cabaret-cantata 'Tales from the City'. This work was commissioned by the City of Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery as part of its Millennium celebrations and premiered on 3rd November 2001. The words are by John Bartlett, music by Clive Jenkins and the Musical Director Simon Ible. The piece was written for mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, narrator, and 16-piece chamber choir with piano accompaniment.
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'DRAKE'S DRUM'
Premiered 7th July, 2001 at Buckland Abbey, Yelverton, Devon stately home of Sir Francis Drake.
A National Trust property.
This work was performed by the Ten Tors Orchestra and Buckland Abbey Festival Chorus at a Gala concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Trust's stewardship of Buckland Abbey. The twenty minute four-movement work was scored for mezzo-soprano soloist (premiere sung by Julianne Young) 36-voice chamber choir, strings, harpsichord and drum.
"In the four movements of "Drake's Drum", I have tried to represent both the
reality and the legend of Devon's greatest son. "They that go Down to the
Sea" is a setting of part of Psalm 107.
The legend of "Drake's Drum" is central to the myth of Drake, and to this
work. The drum itself is still to be seen at Buckland Abbey, and is almost
certainly genuine. Sir Henry Newbolt wrote his "West-Country Ballad", "Drake's Drum" in 1896 It is not entirely historically accurate; Drake was not "slung between the roundshot", sewn into his hammock, as in the normal sailor's burial at sea, he was launched over the side in a lead coffin.
Both the bloodthirsty text and the melody of the "Hymn of Thanksgiving" are Elizabethan; written to celebrate England's deliverance from the Spanish
Armada in 1588.
"Drake's Prayer" has a similarly strange history. The text is taken from a
letter Drake wrote to Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State, Francis Walsingham, on
board the "Elizabeth Bonaventure" after sacking Sagres in 1587: it is in
fact anything but a prayer! It was transformed into its more familiar,
ecclesiastic form by Eric Milner-White in 1939". Andrew Wilson
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THREE BRIDGES CONCERTO
Premiere Saturday 3rd May, 2003
At Tavistock Sings Music Festival
St Eustachius Church, Tavistock, Devon
Andrew Wilson is Director of Music at Kelly College, Tavistock.
The three movements of the Three Bridges Concerto are each mood pictures of the beautiful River Walkham as it makes its journey from Dartmoor to the Tavy. The first movement is inspired by the composer’s thoughts standing by the ancient stones of Huckworthy’s bridge, with the clear water purposefully heading towards the sea. The atmosphere can be very different at Grenofen where the river is deeper and shrouded in mystery by the overhanging woodland. In the last movement the listener is taken to the original Merrivale Bridge. Here the young river is full of energy as it plays and swirls around the massive moorland boulders under the open Dartmoor sky.
Second performance 13th September, 2003 The Parkhouse Centre, Bude, Cornwall
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TRIPTYCH FOR DISTRIBUTED STRINGS
Invited Premiere Friday 29 October, 2004 Portland Square, University of Plymouth
Public Premiere
Saturday 30 October, 2004
St Andrew’s Church, Plymouth
Eduardo Reck Miranda is a composer and researcher of international repute.
His music has been broadcast and performed worldwide, including Bourges
Synthese Festival (France), Festival Música Viva (Portugal),
Computer Music Festival (South Korea) and International Computer Music
Conference (Canada) to cite but four.
Eduardo is Reader in Artificial Intelligence and Music at the
University of Plymouth, where he leads research in computer science applied
to musicology. A recent review of his latest CD album, "Mother Tongue",
reads: "These are immensely sophisticated pieces that constitute
an
electronic global music of convincingly organic simplicity." (Bryan
Motron,
The Wire).
In ‘Triptych for Distributed Strings’ the
composer combines
contemporary European musical forms with traditional Brazilian rhythms.