Works

forces: flt, cl (bass), hn, tpt, pf, vln, vc.

A House of Rumours takes it’s title from a poem by the Scottish poet Robin Robertson and refers to book XII of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.“In the centre of the world there’s a place and to it’s listening ears comes every sound. A shadowy throng and a thousand rumours, false mixed with true, stray this way and that, whole confused words flit about. Some of them pour their stories into idle ears, others carry off elsewhere the tales they have been told, the story grows, and each new tellers adds something to what he has heard.” The pieces consists of seven movements that run into one another.

I. a room of shadows
II. echoing chambers
III. the room of memory
IV. where walls have ears
V. a whispering gallery
VI. another room of shadows
VII. the shuttered chamber

A House of Rumours was commissioned by the Riot Ensemble who gave the first performance, conducted by Aaron Holloway Nahum, at Kings Place, London, 15 January 2021.

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https://composersedition.com/docs/flippdf/ce-pc1hor1/mobile/index.html

forces: piano, violin, cello more...

forces: guitar

Commissioned as the test piece for the 2020 London International Guitar Competition, Spoor is a set of vignettes for solo guitar. Each of the five movements is very different in mood and character but, as the title suggests, share traces of the same material that links them together.

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forces: cello

Written for Anssi Karttunen, in memory of Oliver Knussen.

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forces: counter tenor and piano

A setting of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poem Balled of the Moon, Moon.

forces: viola & piano

Commissioned by Paul Silverthorne to commemorate the 400th anniversary of his Amati viola.

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https://composersedition.com/docs/flippdf/ce-pc1ne1/mobile/index.html

forces: piano

Nine pieces for solo piano, written in memory of Oliver Knussen
Notturno, A Dark March, Reverie, The Wind’s Compass, Slow Air, Little Room of Sleep, Little Machine, Velveteen Morning, Envoi

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https://composersedition.com/docs/flippdf/ce-pc1ss2/mobile/index.html

forces: violin, viola, cello, piano

Dances and Nocturnes, for piano quartet, is about 13 minutes long. As the
title suggests the piece moves between fast rhythmic music and slower
more reflective sections.
The piece opens with an almost folk-like unison line before the instruments
start to splinter apart eventually leaving the piano alone. The string trio
rejoins, juxtaposed against the piano before sharing it’s triplet figure and
moving into a new section marked gentle but energetic. A high, shared note
between violin and piano mark the beginning of a descent into a brief,
nocturnal interlude for solo piano marked fantastico. This music spreads
through the quartet, with a viola solo in the foreground leading into more
static, choral-like music. The tempo picks up again with a triplet moto
perpetuo figure in the piano eventually joined by pizzicato strings passing
into a new section marked stately. An intertwined, overlapping crescendo
call in the strings, each one building in intensity before dying away takes us
into the final section – nocturnal where short piano chorales gradually fade
away into high sustained notes in the strings.
Dances and Nocturnes was commissioned by Wye Valley Chamber Music

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https://composersedition.com/docs/flippdf/ce-pc1dan1/mobile/index.html

forces: Solo vln, flt,clr,hn,perc,2vln,vla,vc,dbs. Alternate version available for violin and piano more...

forces: flt (picc. alto.), cl (bass), perc, hp, pf, vln, vla, vc.

Inspired by the fantastical characters and landscapes depicted in the paintings of the great English surrealist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), Leonora Pictures is a twenty one minute journey through a series of interconnecting panels, each drawing on the virtuosity of different combinations of instruments.

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forces: SATB

A short setting of a poem by Emily Bronte

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forces: soprano/viola

A setting of traditional folk tales

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forces: wind quintet: fl, ob, cl, bn, hn

Five pieces for wind quintet

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forces: soprano, viola and piano

Three settings from Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal; La Musique, Les Hiboux and La Cloche Felee

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forces: vn, pf

Duo for violin and piano. Stobrod is a character in Charles Frazier’s novel ‘Cold Mountain’

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forces: mez, string quartet: 2vn, va, vc

So Lonely sets two poems by Louis McNeice. It was commissioned by the BBC for the ‘Towards the Millennium’ series

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forces: 2perc

Duo for flexible percussion line up

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forces: vn, pf

Three pieces for violin and piano

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forces: for choir, soundtrack and eleven instruments: 2flt (doubling alt.flt), 2 clr (2=bass clr.), 2 hn, 2tpt, 2tbn, perc.

Commissioned for the London Sinfonietta’s inaugural concert at King’s Place, London.

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forces: vla

‘Jarl’ is an old English word meaning chief or head of the tribe

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forces: soprano and piano

Three short settings of poems by Kathleen Raine for female voice and piano. Commissioned by Claire Booth and Andrew Matthews-Owen.

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forces: 2 pf

Hesper (meaning evening star) was commissioned by the Cambridge Suzuki School

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forces: vc

Fragment for solo cello

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forces: vc, pf

A set of vignettes for cello and piano based on Angela Carter’s short story, Black Venus

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forces: cl/bcl, hn, va, vc

Written for Endymion on their twenty fifth anniversary.

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forces: 2 trumpets, 2 trombones

Three arrangements of duets by Orlando di Lassus for brass

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forces: bcl, pf, vln, vc

Bone Machine is a Sinfonietta Short, commissioned by the London Sinfonietta to commemorate their fortieth anniversary.

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forces: for any combination of wind, brass, keyboards and tuned percussion

Braggadocio is a short fanfare for an open scored ensemble of any number of instruments upwards from a duet.

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forces: cl, perc:vib, vn, va, vc, db

Blue Circus is a concertante piece for solo clarinet , vibraphone and strings which takes it’s title from the gravity defying painting by Marc Chagall.

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forces: 2 tpts. more...

forces: wind quintet: fl/bfl, ob, cl, bn, hn

among the bleached stars and suns takes its title from a poem by Kevin Crossley-Holland. The quintet is divided into three groups; a trio of oboe, clarinet and bassoon, off-stage horn and solo bass flute.

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forces: SATB choir

Settings of Christina Rossetti and Thomas Moore

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forces: SATB choir, children's choir, solo trumpet

Commissioned by Dartington International Summer School

forces: 2121, 2100. 2perc, pf, harp, strings: 22221

1. Scenes from Burgos 2. The Silver Surface of the Night 3. The Traveller Without a Compass. Commissioned by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

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forces: 2222,2200,2perc,pf,strings: 6.6.4.4.2

the world’s turning lasts around 12 minutes and continues my fascination with, and exploration of, musical momentum, stasis and the use of mechanisms, patterns, line and repetition in music. The piece is also a vehicle for the virtuosity of the Esprit Orchestra. The title is borrowed from William Boyd’s novel Waiting for Sunrise in which the main character, Lysander Rief, feels for a moment that ‘time has stopped and the world’s turning also’.

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forces: SATB

A setting of John Clare

forces: gui

The thin night darkens takes its title from a line in Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas.

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forces: baritone and piano

A setting of John Keats, written for the NMC Songbook

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forces: solo alto recorder

In mythology and folk tales from around the world the language of birds is often considered to be a magical language and the ability to understand it a sign of great wisdom. Whilst writing this short, virtuosic piece I began to realise that playing the recorder is extremely close to talking or singing and the instrument is a natural extension and amplification of the players body. This was very much in my mind whilst composing. The Language of Birds was written for Tabea Debus and commissioned by St John’s Smith Square as part of their Young Artists scheme.

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forces: 3.3.3.3. 4.3.3.1. 3perc. timp. hp. solo pf. 16.14.12.10.8.

Over the past fifteen years or so I’ve got to know and admire Huw Watkins as a pianist through numerous chamber performances he’s given of mine and many other composers music and I started thinking about writing him a concerto several years ago. The Book of Ingenious Devices was written with his musical personality and formidable ability very much in mind and one of the starting points was thinking about the solo piano in a chamber music context and how it might interact with smaller ensembles from within the orchestra. The concerto lasts around 21 minutes and is heard in a single span that falls into five distinct movements. The first of these is a virtuosic moto perpetuo with the piano at the centre punctuated by different instrumental combinations within the orchestra. The second, shorter movement is much slower and sustained with more expansive material for the soloist which ends leaving the piano alone with a high two part florid figure that quickly descends into short fanfares for brass and a brief return to faster music that quickly winds down, running out of energy before silence and the midway point of the concerto. The fourth movement begins with repeated single notes on the piano which slowly open out into more lyrical material around icy, static chords in the strings and ticking woodwind. Solo harp and timpani gently echo the piano leading to low clusters and trilling drums. Momentum picks up in the three percussion and the fifth and final movement slowly gains pace, re-establishing the momentum of the first movement.

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forces: gui

Talvi was commissioned by Tom Kerstens, who gave the first performance at the 1998 International Guitar Festival in Bath. Talvi, which is the Finnish word for Winter, was the name of a light sculpture exhibition that I saw at the Barbican Centre whilst writing the piece. The fluid and sometimes blurred images of some of the installations and the constant state of flux within the space as a whole seemed to perfectly mirror the type of musical material I was writing for Tom’s solo guitar piece.

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forces: percussion

Tag is a piece for solo percussion built around bass drum and a taiko drum

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forces: 2222, 2200, perc, strings: 8.6.4.4.2

Tableaux is in three sections, or panels. Each is distinct but there is an over-riding concern throughout the entire work of keeping a strong sense of forward momentum. This is established from the outset with a jagged unison line for the upper strings which quickly spreads through the entire orchestra. The middle panel is more harmonic in character with Sibelius-like textures which gradually wind down into a slow pulse on the bass drum. Out of this the final section begins with running quaver figures shared between two low bass clarinets which slowly start to rise up through the orchestra. Tableaux was commissioned by the Northern Sinfonia for the 2003 BBC Promenade Concerts.

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forces: pf. more...

forces: 1111/111/perc. pf. hp. stgs.

Before writing Strix I spent a weekend doing some creative work with the young members of the Britten Sinfonia Academy which took art on display in the twentieth century gallery of the the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge as a starting point. One piece I was particularly drawn to was Graham Sutherland’s bold and slightly terrifying La Petite Afrique III. The strong imagery in this painting led me to think of birds in mythology and I came across the following which became a starting point for the new piece; In folklore the Strix was considered a bird of ill omen that fed on human flesh and blood.The earliest recorded tale of the Strix is from the lost Ornithologia. This tells the story of Polyphonte and her two sons Agrios and Oreios who were punished for their cannibalism by being transformed into wild animals. Polyphonte became a Strix “that cries by night, without food or drink, with head below and tips of feet above, a harbinger of war and civil strife to men”

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forces: string quartet:2vn, va, vc more...

forces: string quartet:2vn, va, vc

The quartet is in four movements: Swarming, Drifting, Freezing, Reeling.

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forces: 2pf, flexible ensemble, 2perc

Commissioned by Contemporary Music for Amateurs

forces: clr,ssax,perc,vn,vc,db

Spitbite was commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia for their ‘A-Z of Music’ series at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, February 2000. The piece is a short tribute to Frank Zappa.

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forces: Bb clr or alt sax

The title is taken from the poem Sad Song by the English playwright and poet Edward Bond.

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forces: gui

Commissioned by Tom Kerstens

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forces: string quartet:2vn, va, vc

Spinlock was written for young musicians in Birmingham as part of a collaboration (devised by BCMG and funded by the Wellcome Foundation) between scientists and composers

forces: pf

Miniature for piano

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forces: pf

Piano miniature written in memory of Duncan Prescott

forces: fl/pic/afl, cl/bcl, bn/cbn, hn, tpt/flugelhorn, perc, vn, va, vc, db

Skein (defined in the dictionary as ‘a loosely knotted tangle of ideas’) was written in 2006 for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group with the intention of drawing out the virtuosic qualities of the ensemble’s musicians. The music grows from, and later returns to, a solo viola and as the title suggests, like a lot of my music, is made up from a number of differing sections overlaid and stitched together. The piece is dedicated to Jackie and Stephen Newbould, is scored for ten instruments and lasts around 14 minutes.

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forces: pf

Six miniatures for piano solo based on paintings by Ben Hartley.

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forces: solo hn, flt/picc, clr/bclr, hp, vln, vla, vc, db. more...

forces: ob, cl, hn, vn, va, vc

Commissioned by the Cheltenham Festival for Melinda Maxwell and Endymion

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forces: fl/picc, fl, ob, ob, cl/bcl, cl, bsn, bsn, hn, hn

Manfredo Settala (1600-1680) was an Italian nobleman and collector of oddities as well as a skilled maker of automata. His most famous invention was a mechanical devil which can still be seen on display at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. In seventeenth century Italy automata were theologically and culturally familiar things and mechanical devils were rife. Poised in sacristies, they were grotesque and bawdy, made horrible faces, howled and stuck out their tongues to instil fear in the hearts of sinners. The Satan- machines rolled their eyes and flailed their arms and wings, some even had moveable horns and crowns and breathed smoke through their nostrils.

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forces: string quartet:2vn, va, vc

Samain is in four short movements and is based on the painting of the same name by Leonora Carrington

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forces: piano trio: pf, vn, vc

Four miniatures for piano trio commissioned by Thalia Myers for the Chamber Music Exchange Project.

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forces: pf

Miniature for piano written for the ABRSM Spectrum series

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forces: chamber choir

A setting for choir

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forces: pf

Written for Richard McMahon

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forces: sop, 2cl/bcl, va, vc, db

A song setting a text by Ian Whyte

forces: timp, perc, strings

Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra for the Shell/LSO Percussion Scholarship.

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forces: 3333, 4431. timp, 4perc, harp, strings:16.14.12.10.8

Commissioned by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales

forces: vn, va, vc, pf

Written for the Schubert Ensemble’s Chamber Music 2000 project

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forces: SATB choir

Setting of a text by Kevin Crossley-Holland

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forces: gui

Commissioned by Tom Kerstens

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forces: children's choir

Commissioned by the New London Children’s Choir

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forces: sop, cl/bcl, va, vc, db

A song setting a text by Edward Bond

forces: any combination of instruments

Mechanik takes its title from Mechanik’s Bench,a sculpture by Eduardo Paolozzi. In this short piece (for any combination of instruments) I tried to capture the sense of energy and strength the sculpture gives off.

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forces: pf. solo

Written for the One Minute Wonder series.

forces: pf

Written foir the ABRSM’s Spectrum series

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forces: counter tenor (or female voice) and piano

A short setting of Lorca.

forces: 3333, 4331. timp, 4perc, strings: 16.14.12.10.8

IO was commissioned by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

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forces: ob, strings (minimum 1.1.1.1.1. players)

The House of Night takes its title from a poem by Kathleen Raine and is a collection of five scenes for oboe and strings in which the solo oboe is cast as a figure in a landscape.

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forces: hn, vln, pf

Commissioned by the Rainbow over Bath concert series for the New Music Players

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forces: 2 solo pianos, 2 percussionists and flexibly scored ensemble.

forces: pf

Four studies for piano solo

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forces: four hands at one piano

Written for the ABRSM’s Spectrum series

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forces: picc/flt, cl/bcl, vibes, vln,vc

The title Firewheel is borrowed from the painting of the same name by British artist Bryan Wynter (1915-1975). In recent years I’ve been fascinated by his brilliantly coloured late abstract paintings and their allusion to patterning found in the natural world. My piece is playful in character, conceived in layers and grows out of repetition, line and ostinati.

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forces: SATB chorus, 3232, 2110. 2perc, cel, pf:4-hands, 4gui, strings

The Forest of Clocks was commissioned by Contemporary Music for Amateurs.

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forces: vn, pf

A miniature written for the ABRSM’s Spectrum series

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forces: 3.3.3.3. 4.3.3.1. perc(2). timp. hp. stgs. more...

forces: cl, va, pf

The Devil’s Box is a set of five miniatures. Movement two features the viola, movement three is for solo clarinet and in the fourth movement the piano takes on the role of soloist in a brief corteÌ€ge. The first movement is a monody and the last a moto perpetuo.

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forces: fl/afl, cl/bcl, perc (glock, vibes, sizz cym, 5 gongs, marimba), pf, vc more...

forces: 6vc

Commissioned by Endyniom

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forces: For 6 singers and 7 instruments flt (alt.flt, picc.) clr (Eb, bass cl.) hn. perc. vln. vc. dbs.

An Elizabethan murder mystery.

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forces: pf, fl/pic, ob, cl/bcl, bn/cbn, hn, tpt, trb, perc, harp, 2vn, va, vc, db

Commissioned by the London Sinfonietta

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forces: pf

Miniature for piano solo (taken from The Devil’s Box).

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https://composersedition.com/docs/flippdf/ce-pc1c2/mobile/index.html

forces: cl, bn, hn, 2vn, va, vc, db [0011, 1000.2111]

Commissioned by the Cambridge Music Festival.

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forces: cello, strings (4.3.2.2.1 minimum)

The concerto for cello and strings is in a single movement which lasts around 19 minutes and, like a lot of my pieces, is made up of a series of juxtaposed or related episodes as well as a lot of fast music. The concerto is written in the conventional sense that it’s a vehicle for the virtuosity of the soloist.

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forces: fl/afl/pic, ob, 2cl, bn, hn, tpt, 2perc, pf, harp, 2vn, va, vc, db [1121, 1100.2111]

With the Chamber Concerto I wanted to write a piece that exploited the virtuosity of the players and different instrumental groups of BCMG. The music is sectional and each uses different and contrasting instrumental combinations. There are fifteen distinctly identifiable sections: with a sense of urgency; bold and expressive; dry and machine-like; dancing and pushing forward; oboe cadenza; transparent and ghostly; slower (clarinet solo); tom-tom cadenza; with passion; hard and driving; turbulent; jazzy; violin cadenza; scintillating; frozen.

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forces: 2tpts,hn tbn,tba

forces: cl/bcl, vn, vc, pf

Caprichos takes its name from Goya’s Los Caprichos, a set of eighty aquatints which depict the bizarre, mischievous and often grotesque world of 18th century Spain. The music isn’t a literal depiction of Goya’s work, but takes it as a starting point for a set of musical portraits that explore the possibilities of clarinet, piano, violin and cello.

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forces: gui

Black Venus is a set of four short dances (i. passionate, ii. fast and energetic, iii. in slow motion, iv. agile) for solo guitar and takes its title from a short story by Angela Carter. Baudelaire sits in his darkened Parisien apartment in front of a raging fire whilst his Creole mistress dances for him, striking a series of exotic poses. She is naked except for her jewellery which sparks and glistens on the ceiling as it catches the light of the fire. Black Venus was commissioned by Tom Kerstens, who gave the first performance at the 1999 International Guitar Festival in Bath.

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forces: cl/bcl, pf, vc

The image of Aquila swooping across the pages of Flamstead’s Atlas Coelestis gave me the idea for this trio. A fierce and powerful eagle is in mid flight but trapped between lines of longitude and latitude and destined to mechanically circle round and round the heavens, forever in the same orbit.

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forces: wind, percussion, strings, gui, children's voices, brass

Apollo is a large scale cantata for young musicians that uses technical data taken from the Apollo 11 mission and folk tales about the moon as it’s text.

forces: flexible ensemble, pf, perc

Commissioned by Contemporary Music for Amateurs

forces: choir, organ, brass quintet

All things wear silence is a setting of poems by Valentine Ackland written during WWII. I tried to capture the dark undercurrent of these poems that describe the natural landscape (Ackland worked as a land girl) during the early 1940’s.

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forces: solo guitar and string quartet

A Web of Shadows was commissioned by Tom Kerstens, who gave the first performance with the Castalian String Quartet at the Purcell Room on 4 June 2011. Like a lot of my music the piece is made up of a series of short musical ideas that sit side by side or are stitched together. The problem of balance between the solo guitar and string quartet was a concern whilst writing the piece and led to music that has a delicate, almost filigree, quality. The string quartet play with practise mutes throughout as I wanted to try and give the impression that they were performing behind a veil.

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forces: strings:4.3.2.2.1 (minimum)

…in the still hours takes its title from a line in the poem ‘Nocturn’ by Kathleen Raine

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forces: french horn/piano