Perusal scores are available for every piece - please reach out to Angela about perusal scores.
Angela Elizabeth Slater is a composer on Music Patron, a digital platform connecting composers with music lovers by bringing together the traditional concept of patronage with the impact of grassroots collective giving. Support her here.
Angela Elizabeth Slater is a composer on Music Patron, a digital platform connecting composers with music lovers by bringing together the traditional concept of patronage with the impact of grassroots collective giving. Support her here.
LARGE ENSEMBLES
ORCHESTRA
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A PATTERN OF SHADOWS - CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
A Pattern of Shadows - chamber orchestra (2019) 3'
1(pic).1.1.1(cbn)/1.1.0.0/4 perc/str Purchase Perusal score Recording Recording with score video A Pattern of Shadows was written for the Savellykurssi composition summer course as part of the Summer Sounds festival, resulting in a public workshop titled 'Visual Music.' A Pattern of Shadows is based on abstract animations of an old avant garde short film, which was labelled simply as 'Film 3' for this project. This film is full of different colours, shapes, movement, and textures. The music written alongside seeks to encapsulate these aspects through instrumental colour, timbre and harmony as well as capturing the movement through the dramatic gestures of the music. As one across the tilting sky - STRING ORCHESTRA
As one across the tilting sky - string orchestra and percussion (2022) 4'30"
Purchase Perusal Recording (clip) As one across the tilting sky has been written for the 'Composer as Conductor' project at the Tanglewood Music Festival 2022. The piece explores the shift in movement and direction of both weather systems and a murmuration of birds, flitting back and forth in different directions, spreading out and then crunching together to create density. These ideas are reflected in the music's rhythmical language, harmonic density and timbral colour exploration. BEYOND YOURSELF - LARGE ENSEMBLE
Beyond yourself - large ensemble (2020) 2'30"
Five solo amplified voices (soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and instrumental ensemble: 2 flutes (1 doubles picc), clarinet, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, horn, trumpet, 2 trombone, tuba, percussion, electric guitar, electric bass, piano Purchase Perusal Recording Recording with score video Beyond yourself is a new work written for orkest de ereprijs. It sets a text (written by the composer) that explores the frustrations with the prevailing selfish attitudes that affect us all, especially in the concurrent crises of Covid-19 and climate change. Text: Stop If you could just stay back If you could just stop If you could just wait if you could just see beyond yourself then this could stop (going through endless loops) Cloud - string ensemble
The title Cloud was chosen for this work as a point of inspiration. The piece explores the imagery and movement associated with clouds and weather. It starts with a slow expressive section that contains musical ‘sighs’, using music to express human emotion through the imagery and movement of nature. The piece then shifts through a number of different temperaments, before returning to the contemplative ‘sighs’ of the opening. dreams we forgot - orchestra
Dreams we forgot - amateur orchestra (2022) 8'
2.2.3(3=bcl).2/2.2.2.1/timp.perc/str(12.10.8.6.4) or str(10.8.6.4.4) Purchase Perusal Dreams we forgot was written for The Stafford Orchestra, supported by the Ambache Charitable Trust and Stafford District Arts Council. The piece yearns for something we have lost and explores this through impassioned melodic lines. These are expressed through sweeping and undulating string writing, and more delicate, fragile interweaved woodwind lines. The oboe opens and closes the work with a single note motif. The piece gradually builds through episodes of rich crescendos, before dying away to nothing. FANTASY OF DAWN - STRING ORCHESTRA
Fantasy of the Dawn is a revision for string orchestra of the original piece Ukulele Fantasy. Ukulele Fantasy was developed for The Lincoln Ukulele Band as part of 2015-16 Adopt a Composer Scheme, funded by PRS for Music Foundation and the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust, and run by Making Music, in partnership with Sound and Music and BBC Radio 3. In its original form, the piece begins with a section that explores the unusual sounds that the Ukulele can make, conjuring up imagery of nortunal activity. In this new version the same types of sounds are explored but using the strengths and unique timbres of bowed string instruments. This builds to a dramatic point of climax, marking the beginning of an energetic rhythmic section that represents the emergence of the day and the energy that it brings. gathering the tide - chamber orchestra
Gathering the tide - chamber orchestra (2023) Contact for perusal and purchase Recording with score video Collaboration with The Mostly Modern Festival Netherlands roil in stillness: Ripples and waves - ORCHESTRA
Roil in Stillness: Ripples and Waves - orchestra (2015) 12'
3(2,3=pic).3(3=cor).3(3=bcl).3(3=cbn)/4.3.2.1.1/timp.2 perc/cel.hp.pn/str Purchase Perusal Recording Roil in Stillness is from a series of works that are inspired by the natural world. The music is influenced by imagery linked to roiled, turbulent waters, especially the representation of ripples and waves through different compositional means. The climax of the piece creates an aural representation of ripples reaching a central point, highlighted by a dramatic dissonant chord, before descending away again. soaring in stasis - chamber ORCHESTRA
Soaring in Stasis - chamber orchestra (2017, rev. 2018) 10'
1(pic,afl).1(cor).1(bcl).1(cbn)/1.1.1.0/2 perc/hp.pn/str Purchase Perusal Recording Soaring in Stasis was written and developed at the Aldeburgh Britten-Pears Young Artists Composition programme 201 7 for the newly formed Ulysses Ensemble generously supported by Snape Maltings, Britten-Pears foundation, Leverhulme Trust and the Ulysses Network . Soaring in Stasis takes its inspiration from the way that birds use spiralling updrafts, and the cold air that sinks around these, to soar, apparently effortlessly, high above the land. Opening with a clarinet flourish, the music spirals its way through the updrafts until it is left floating at a point of stasis. Following a point of ethereal stillness, the music sinks dramatically, clamouring over itself before rising again to an extremely high closing flourish as the energy dissipates. The piece closes with a ringing piano and crotale notes, outlasting the busy material that surrounded it. THE louder the birds sing - ORCHESTRA
The Louder the Birds Sing - orchestra (2021) 7'
2(2=pic).2(2=cor).2(2=bcl).2(2=cbn)/4.2.2.1.1/timp.2 perc/hp/str(12.10.8.6.4) or (10.8.6.4.4) Purchase Perusal Recording The Louder the Birds Sing was written for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in 2021, and explores the themes of strength and fragility. It is a reflection of the emotional turmoil that the pandemic has provoked and how it has exposed both our strength and fragility. The title refers to the phenomenon people observed during lockdown where the birds seemed to be singing louder. This was, in fact, more to do with our own noise pollution being hugely reduced than the birds changing volume. There was a disconcerting realisation for me personal ly that the louder the birds seemed to sing, the more dire our current situation was and this paradoxical notion created a great sense of unease in the apparent tranquility. THe shadows that I missed - ORCHESTRA
Three reflections - string ORCHESTRA
Three Reflections - string orchestra (2013) arrangement and expansion of solo piano work I. Light II. Soft tears III. Mirage Contact for perusal and purchasing twilight inversions - ORCHESTRA
Twilight Inversions - orchestra (2018) 8'
2(2=pic).2(2=cor).2(2=bcl).2(2=cbn)/2.3.1.1.1/timp.perc/str Purchase Perusal Recording Twilight Inversions has been written for the London Firebird orchestra after winning their Young Composer of theYear 2018 competition.The inspiration for Twilight Inversions came after seeing a beautiful and mesmerising time-lapse video by photographer Kris Williams of cloud inversions on Snowdonia. In this video the clouds flow like water over the contours of the mountains and the twilight sky shimmers above the clouds. The clouds are, in effect, inverted so they sit below our feet whilst a vibrant colourful twilight sky is seen above. The piece explores the effervescently delicate textures and colours of these time-lapse images, and reflects the dramatic movement and darkening of the clouds across the time-lapse. Unravelling the crimson sky - ORCHESTRA
Unravelling the crimson sky - orchestra (2022) 4'
3(3=pic).3(3=cor).3(3=cbl).3(3=cbn)/4.3.2.1.1/timp.perc/hp.pn/str(12.10.8.6.4) Purchase Perusal This composition is commissioned by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as part of its Centenary celebrations, with support from the John Feeney Charitable Trust. upflight - string orchestra
Upflight takes its inspiration from the idea of a desire or compulsion to move with a restless energy. It is based on the idea of birds having a migratory instinct, activated by the pul l of earth’s rhythms. The piece explores the feeling of being released from the Earth’s floor to launch into the stratosphere, with the high reaching violin solo melodies in the opening evoking this. The piece is pul led back down to earth in the second section with the double bass and cel los low rumbling gestural material before launching back into an almost ethereal suspended sound. Aleatoric material then takes over, capturing the sense of lots of overlapping movement, like a murmuration of starlings, with each one eventual ly finding its own way through dramatic strident melodies. |
SOLOIST(S) AND ORCHESTRA
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*CURRENT CONSORTIUM*
arbor concerto for accordion and chamber orchestra Arbor Concerto: for accordion and chamber orchestra (forthcoming) c. 24' Collaboration with accordanist Kamila Olas accordion | chamber orchestra - 1.1.1.1/1.1.1.0/1 perc/ str (3.2.2.2.1) I. Aphoric roots II. The night collapses III. A thread of light branches upwards IV. Event horizon Contact to join the consortium *CURRENT CONSORTIUM*
mountains become oceans - double concerto for harp and percussion with orchestra Mountains become oceans, a double concerto for harp and percussion with orchestra (forthcoming) 20-25'
Collaboration with Harpist Rosanna Moore and percussionist Hannah WEaver harp & percussion | 2(2=picc).2.2.2(2=cbn)/2.2.2.1/timp.2 perc/str Tautening skies: piano concerto - piano with orchestra
Tautening skies: Piano Concerto - piano with orchestra (2020) 15'30"
piano | 2(2=pic).2(2=cor).2(2=bcl).2(2=cbn)/2.2.1.1.1/timp.perc/str Contact for purchasing Perusal Recording with score video Tautening skies As the colours fade Through the needles eye (poem by Angela Elizabeth Slater) through the fading hour: Viola concerto - viola with orchestra
Through the fading hour: Viola Concerto - viola with orchestra (2021-2022) 12'
viola | 2(2=pic).2(2=cor).2(2=bcl).2(2=cbn)/2.2.2.1/2 perc/hp.pn/str(3.2.1.2.2) Purchase Perusal Recording Recording with score video Through the fading hour has been written for the London Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composers Programme 2021/22 especial ly for violists Richard Waters and David Quiggle. Through the fading hour explores the light qualities and colours that we see during the twilight hours, with the onsetting of darkness and the fading of light. We might also see this moment as the twilight hour of the earth, at least with our presence on it, as the realities of climate change become increasingly evident. The piece emerged from one of my own poems: Through the fading hour Whispers morph and mould A flickering light gives one last breath Before being blown into the ether |
WIND ORCHESTRA/ WIND ENSEMBLE
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dark refractions - wind orchestra
Dark Refractions - wind orchestra (2016) 8'30"
pic, 2 fl, 3 cl, bcl, 2 asax, 2tax, bsax, 3 horn, 2 cornet, 3 tpt, 2 tbn, 2 euph, tuba, timp, 3 perc Purchase Recording Recording with score video Dark Refractions was written in 2016 for the VRM Wind Orchestra as part of a collaborative commissioning opportunity from Sound and Music and the DAR residency scheme. The piece explores the colours present in the light spectrum of a natural phenomenon called ‘black rainbows’. This phenomenon, which I have recast as ‘dark refractions’, sees the refracted light spectrum veiled through darkness, distinguishing this from more conventional rainbows. The piece is inspired by the imagery associated with the colours emerging from black rainbows, leading to each section of the piece having a distinctive colour ‘identity’. These colours are expressed through a range of harmonic, timbral, and rhythmic devices. The distinct characters of each musical section takes you on a voyage through the spectrum of a dark rainbow, with each colour being rendered musically. After each of the colours has been expressed, the piece builds towards an energetic and dramatic combination of the colours forming white light. It is not my intention for the colours to be made explicit in the piece, rather that I wished to create a clear sonic change in each identity. I am grateful to the VRM Wind Orchestra for their time and dedication to this piece in the rehearsals, which took place in Druskininkai (Lithuania) in August 2016. The work was premiered on 25/26th August 2016 by this ensemble. stormscape - wind orchestra
Stormscape - wind orchestra (2013) 8' pic, 2 fl, 2 ob, 3 cl, bcl, bsn, 2 asax, tsax, bsax, 2 horn, 3 tpt, 2 tbn, euph, tuba, timp, 4 perc Purchase | Contact for perusal | Recording |
CHORAL
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APPARITION - SSSAAATTTBBB
Apparitions is full of vivid imagery and explores many textural and timbral possibilties that voices can offer. It is written for SSSAAATTTBBB chamber choir. It sets my own poem: As the sky ripples and aches My haunting stature still But the heart is swept away Hands cling, that cannot grasp Something half seen, no, Eyes open for, Beautiful scars in the sky All asleep, one day...(die) for the memories - SATB
for the memories is an expressive setting of poet and playwright Helene Gron's poem for the memories. The setting explores the imagery of words and associated deep emotional turmoil. the morning hangs from us like dropping rain ready to fall so moist as something we lost we shower in what we used to be for now to enhance our combination my love will you listen to me today? {if not for the tightness of us quietly at home in tenderness} and in spite of the hurt galloping through out chests the boiling third-kissed lips the darling my darling let's try again for the memories the christ child - SATB
Victimae paschali laudes - SATB or aatb
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BRASS BAND
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AN EXHILARATION OF LIGHT - BRASS BAND
An exhilaration of light - brass band (2021-2022) 4'
Soprano cornet, 4 sop. cornets, Repiano cornet, 2nd & 3rd cornet, flugelhorn, Solo horn, 2 horns, 2 baritones, 2 trombones, bass trombone, euphonium, Eb bass, Bb bass, timpani (2 drums), perc (drumkit and glockenspiel) Purchase Perusal Recording with score video An exhilaration of light was written for London Metropolitan brass in celebration of International Women's Day. The piece is a celebration of women's achievement and creativity. Expressed through bright, thril ling and uplifting cycles of melodic material. The piece abruptly broadens out to reflective chorale material before returning to a final uplifting flourishing fanfare. |
UKULELE BAND
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Ukulele fantasy - ukulele band
Ukulele Fantasy was developed for The Lincoln Ukulele Band as part of 2015-16 Adopt a Composer Scheme, funded by PRS for Music Foundation and the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust, and run by Making Music, in partnership with Sound and Music and BBC Radio 3. The piece begins with a section that explores the unusual sounds that the Ukulele can make, conjuring up imagery of nortunal activity. This builds to a dramatic point of climax, marking the beginning of an energetic rhythmic section that represents the emergence of the day and the energy that it brings. |
CHAMBER ENSEMBLES
STRINGS
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a tulip, iron - mezzo-soprano, tenor, violin, viola, cello
A tulip, iron - Mezzo-soprano, tenor, violin, viola, cello (2023) 12'
Text by Kendra Preston Leonard Purchase Recording Recording with score video Note from librettist Kendra Preston Leonard: a tulip, iron is about the fear and horror created by psychological and emotional abuse, the relief of escape from abuse, and the work required to contend with traumatic memories of it. Using Perle Fine’s work The Early Morning Garden (1957) as a focusing device for this lyric, I work with elements of the natural world as well as my own personal history. The mezzo soprano and tenor serve as protagonist and antagonist, respectfully, and I’ve made it deliberately unclear as to whether their texts and interactions are taking place in the present or are memories. The text is in three loose sections, through which the protagonist moves from fear and intense self-doubt into greater agency, grapples with the causes and extent of her wounds, recognizes how trauma has shaped her, and becomes able to distance herself from it. The antagonist diminishes and humiliates the protagonist, causing her to hesitate and sing in fragments of sentences. He calls her simple and an embarrassment, disparaging her mind and body and abilities, even as she begins to communicate more fully and lyrically and draws on a wider world for her outlook. Finally, he—or the memory of his words and actions—falls silent, becoming nothing to the protagonist, as she leaves the scene—or memory—with self- determination. Note from the composer Angela Elizabeth Slater: When I approached Kendra for a unique text to set, I asked her to explore memory as something difficult, questioning why certain things happened the way they happened, questioning yourself and whether things were your own fault. I wanted the text to draw on the deep intense emotions that still bubble over the surface from the bullying and gaslighting. I experienced at school. I have found this text deeply emotionally powerful to set. Alongside this, I engaged with the visual stimulus of Perle Fine's work The Early Morning Garden. Taken together, these helped me find a soundworld that is a mixture of fragility and strength, whilst exploring the nuances of colours and distinct gestural shapes for both the string players and the vocalists. The piece should be treated as an imagined scene from a larger narrative trajectory set ambiguously in memory or somewhere real; perhaps it is both. daybreak of dusk - cello and piano
Daybreak of dusk - cello and piano (2022) 4'
Purchase and perusal score Recording Recording with score video Daybreak of dusk has been written for the 'Piece a day project' project at the Tanglewood Music Festival 2022. der same sucht das licht - accordion, clarinet, cello
Der Same sucht das Licht (the seed seeks the light) is a work written especial ly for Trio Tempestoso. The piece is inspired by the intriguing friendship between Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky. They engaged in an artistic dialogue between 1917- 1919, exchanging miniature works of art. The beginning of their exchange was Stravinsky's hotel telegram containing a short sketch of musical material for clarinet. This sketch served as the musical seed for my work and I have used the concept and structure of a tree to guide the work and the transformation of Stravinsky's five bar sketch. I. Der Same Sucht das Licht (c.6 minutes) II. Der Baum umgeben von Licht (c.5 minutes) III. Die Zweige nehmen das Licht auf (c. 4 minutes) Trio Tempestoso commissioned this work with the generous support of the RVW Trust and the Marchus Trust. distorted light - string quartet
Distorted Light explores the idea of light being distorted through different prisms create spectrums of colour. This is evoked through rhythmic pulsating patterns on harmonics that keep changing the shift of the harmony and emphasis of pitch. A melody of sorts is created across the quartet through the passing of these accented moments. The cello's entries gradually begin to dissipate these pulsating harmonics with fierce and emotive solo material, that are then punctuated by small glimmers of material related to the opening material. These punctuations gradually transform into less defined material allowing the lines to interweave in a more fluid manner than before. The pulsating harmonic material little by little begins to make its presence known once again before distorting into the strident melody first heard in the cello earlier in the piece, but now almost a memory presented across the ensemble and continous disingtegrating into timbral explorations or harmonic pulsations. dreams - violin and piano
Dreams - violin and piano (forthcoming) 20'
etching colours - oboe and violin
Etching colours was written in June 2020 for Christopher Redgate and Peter Sheppard Skaerved for the RMA 2020 Conference, which was due to be held at University of Goldsmiths. I believe there is a deep connection between music and colour and this can be particularly explored in connection to timbre, density and texture. In this piece I have started to explore the concept of colour theory - a theory that investigates the basic principles of primary colours, and how mixing colours at different denigrations, density, and textures can change our perception of a colour. I have taken these principles to explore how colour within music can be manipulated through timbre, harmony, and instrumental colour. Through this I have started to categorise what the 'primary colours' of musical timbre may be and how timbral colours/extended techniques create similar sounds on different instruments. The piece cycles through different areas of colour exploration, each instrument follows the same order but not at the same rate, causing these bleeding moments of different colour within the piece. The colour cycle is in three layers - timbral, harmonic and textural - allowing new shadings and emphasis to be explored as the cycles meet at different points. eye o da hurricane - string quartet
Eye o da hurricane was written for a colloborative workshop with writers and the Gildas quartet at the St Magnus composition course (2017). The piece takes inspiration and imagery from Christian Tait’s poem ‘Fae da Journal o a Crofter’s Wife’. The piece particularly draws on imagery from certain lines within the poem including: Sae here I am ida eye o da hurricane while a aathing crashes an roars an birls aboot me. Destructive an oot o control. … ta read atween da lines, or hoo my hert vibrates laek fiddle-strings in tune wi der black despair … sood cry my name A’ll hear him sammas he wis in da nixt room … But ivvery meenit o ivvery day I bargain wi da Mellishon, offerin him my sowl if he’ll bring dem safely hame … Dis is what its laek, aa bi me lane trapped ida eye o da hurricane falling watercolours - string quartet
Falling Watercolours has been written for the Rolston quartet for the Soundstreams Emerging Composer works. The piece explores effervescent delicate textures and colours both lumninous and dark reflecting the array of possible tones, textures of watercolours.The piece aims to explore the relationship and dynamic between material free of meter or precise rhythms in conjuction and juxtaposition with very traditional strict meter material. fireflies - violin and viola
Fireflies was written for the Vale of Glamogen Festival as part of the Peter Reynolds Composition Studio course. Based on a poem by Angela Elizabeth Slater In the black shadow of the moon's reflection Fireflies light up the tear that shook the ground flickering airs in coloured skies - string quartet, flute, clarinet
Flickering airs in coloured skies - string quartet, flute, and clarinet (2017) 7'30"
Purchase Perusal Recording with score video Flickering airs in coloured skies was written for the 2017 St Magnus Festival Composition Course. The piece explores the imagery and the beautiful colours of the Orkney’s rugged landscapes, capturing the essence of the rapid changes in the wild weather and the impact these have on the light qualities. An ethereal and tranquil section opens the piece, punctuated with off-stage air sounds from the winds, with string harmonics being used to create a transparent fragile sound that is soon disturbed by explosive bursts of energy that quickly dissipate into nothingness. As the piece progresses, the bursts become more sustained, representative of some of the turbulent weather that Orkney endures throughout the year. Each of the flickering airs returns a number of times throughout the piece, though always in a subtly different guise. frost flower - violin and cello
Frost Flower for violin and cel lo It depicts the formation of a ‘frost flower’, a natural phenomenon also known as ‘ice blossom’. A frost flower is a condition where many thin layers of ice extrude from the stem of plants in autumn or early winter. These layers of ice form intricate and exquisite patterns that curl into formations resembling ‘petals’, col lectively forming something akin to a flower. The piece shows the ‘life-cycle’ of a frost flower, balancing the austere beauty with the natural fragility of the formations. Frozen waterfall - flute, violin, cello
Frozen Waterfall (2015) was written at CoMA summer school composition course. This piece explores the idea of water gradually freezing and the energy of its movement changing to still crystalised ice structures. Each instrument has its own material that gradually freeze at different rates, finally solidifying at the close of the work. Glass dominoes - oboe, clarinet, marimba, violin, viola, cello
Glass dominoes - Oboe, clarinet, marimba, violin, viola and cello (2023) 7'
Purchase Recording Recording with score video Glass dominoes has been written for the Mostly Modern Ensemble. The work explores the notion of the chain reactions that split and fracture in different directions. There are gestures that cause the knock on effect of another instruments part but sometimes these flows are broken and interrupted by other forces. hunter's silence - mezzo-soprano and cello
Hunter's Silence has been written for the Rosie Middleton and Sarah Gait for the Olyver Collective's December 2019 concert. The piece sets a short haiku poem by Winona Baker called 'Moss-hung trees'. The piece explores effervescent delicate textures and colours both lumninous and dark reflecting an array of possible tones and textures created by the combination of cello and voice. The piece aims to explore the relationship and dynamic between material free of meter or precise rhythms in conjuction and juxtaposition with more strict material. in the blue of branches - violin and piano
In the blue of branches - violin and piano duet (2022) 5'
Purchase Perusal Recording Recording for score video In the blue of branches has been written for the 'Piece a day project' project at the Tanglewood Music Festival 2022. night airs - pierrot ensemble with percussion
Night Airs - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2015) 7'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal Recording Night Airs is from a series of pieces inspired by the natural world and explores imagery of the night.The piece opens with a stillness that explores different timbral combinations to create unusual tone colours. This stillness is disturbed by energetic bursts of colour that act as pre-echoes to the more melodically and rhythmically agile faster section. The faster section continues to combine the instrumental voices in interesting ways and particularly shows off the agility of the flute and clarinet in duet passages. Dovetailing cascades return the music to the stillness of the opening as the night draws to a close. of spheres - string quartet
Of Spheres has been written for the Semiosis Quartet for the International Alliance for Women in Music Conference, June 2019. The piece is driven through the string trio exploring different musical spheres and orbits around a planetary body - in this instance the cello. They explore different harmonic spheres, timbral and gestural realms, whilst there is an ever-present C-C sharp Cello pedal that exerts a gravitational pull on the other instruments. This anchor gradually pulls the whole group together, both in pitch content and in the physical location of the players. It draws all pitches towards this C-C sharp pedal, leaving the C-C sharp pitch to linger in the air as the piece comes to a close. out of the dust - soprano, cello, piano
rainbow fires - piano trio
Rainbow Fires (2015) was written for the Fournier Trio as part of the Advanced Composition Course at the 2015 Dartington International Summer School, where my place was generously funded by the Boltini Trust. The pieces takes on the imagery and concept of rainbow fires, a rare natural phenomenon where clouds appear to be aflame with rainbow colours due ot light being refracted by ice crystals in the atmosphere. It explores the different colours and associates elements air, fire and ice with different colours. Sakura: The falling of the blossom - oboe, cello, koto, shakuhachi
Sakura; The Falling of the Blossom - oboe, cello, koto, shakuhachi quartet (2015) 6'
Purchase Perusal Recording Sakura - The Falling of the Blossom (2015) loosly explores the narrative and imagery of Cherry Blossom before and when they fall. It is a piece that explores timbres and changes, as the end of the cherry blossom indicates the changing of seasons. shades of rain - piano trio
Shades of Rain has been written for the Prism piano trio as a commission for the Illuminate Women's Music 2019 Season I US-UK touring concert series. The piece explores the imagery and textures of different types of rain. The piece functions as though it is two movements happening within the same piece: Cloudburst and Petrichor. Cloudburst refers to an extreme amount of precipitation in a short period of time often accompanied by hail and thunderstorms. The piece reflects this with dramatic driving rhythms and strident dramatic chords from the piano. These spells of extreme dramatic rain and musical descents are interrupted by music representing Petrichor. 'Petrichor' is the pleasant aroma that occurs after rain has fallen for the first time after a dry period. These parts of the music are explored through expansive and reflective lyrical lines giving relief to the dramatic movements and figures found in the Cloudburst sections. The Illuminate Women's Music 2019 Season I concert series and commissions is supported by the PRS Open Fund for organisations. shadows create the night - piano quintet
Shadows create the Night - piano quintet (2015) 8'
2 violins, viola, cello, piano Purchase Perusal Recording Shadows Create the Night (2014) is loosely based on the poetic idea and narrative imagery of shadows coming together to form the darkness of the night. These shadows undergo transformations and interact in different ways throughout the night.The end of the piece represents the emergence of the dawn as the levels of light gradually increase and the dark shadows disappear as the night turns to day. This transformation is represented by the continually ascending cello note at the end,coloured by the violin harmonics. Spaces frozen - viola and cello
Spaces frozen explores small moments of numbness, like breaths, fleeting and fluid in their nature, a reflection of our times. This piece has been written for Ensemble Assonance's Quarantine Composer Challenge on 19th April 2020. The composition of this piece started while on a walk at 9.30am, firstly with just ideas in my head. Then I started notating at 11am and completeted the composition by 3.30pm. The passage of time is fragile, fleeting and concentrates the mind. spinning colours | faded time - piano quartet
Spinning Colours | Faded Time - piano quartet (2021) 8'
violin, viola, cello, piano Purchase Perusal Recording Recording with score video Spinning Colours | Faded Time was written for the Trio Northumbria for the 2021 RMA Conference held at Newcastle University. The piece explores the ways that musical expressions of colour interact with musical renderings of Laban's eight efforts. Each gesture and colour has an associated weight, energy, and speed, creating interesting relationships between the instruments and their respective sonorities. The first half of the piece explores the slow Laban efforts: float, glide, wring, and press. The second half engages with the gestural efforts: flick, slash, dab, and punch, before the material disintegrates in the pure harmonics, seemingly ever longer each time. tangled breath in winter air - clarinet, cello, piano
I. Breathe II. Inhale III.Exhale Tangled breath in winter air is a work in three movements, written for Trio Sonorite as part of the Illuminate Women’ s Music Spring 2023 season. The work is a reflection on the sense of exhaustion I have been feeling, serving as a reminder to take time to breathe; to inhale and exhale; to be calm and reflect; to allow myself to be lost in the flow of creativity; to enjoy the beauty and emotion of that. The outer movements explore a reflective calm world rich in colour, expression and emotion, both in timbre and harmony. The middle movement – ‘ Inhale’ – evokes a sense of failing to be calm, a reflection of being overwhelmed by the world. the edge of things - violin and viola
The edge of things - violin and viola duet (2022) 6'30"
Purchase Perusal Recording Recording with score video The edge of things has been written for the 'Piece a day project' project at the Tanglewood Music Festival 2022. the light blinds - clarinet, string quartet
The Light Blinds - clarinet quintet (2022)
clarinet, string quartet Purchase Perusal Recording with score video The dark engulfs and the light blinds in neither a sight is seen in clarity a blur, desperate to find a firm grip in focus the moon is falling - violin and guitar
The Moon is Falling was written in late August 2016 while on the Druskininkai Artist Residency programme in Lithuania. The piece has since been revised for the 2018 Illumimate concert series and will receive its premiere at these concerts. The piece explores ideas and imagery of the moon. After I heard the phrase 'the moon is always falling' on a radio programme my imagination was captured. The idea of this apparently motionless object, seemingly so calm and serene, essentially being in a paradoxical state of falling towards the earth without ever getting any closer to it. The piece explores these themes, which emphasise the contradictory power of gravity to generate massive speeds and force, whilst appearing to be in a state of serene stasis. to know the dark - pierrot ensemble with percussion
To know the dark - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2021) 8-10'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal To know the dark was commissioned by the Impuse New Music Festival 2021, for the Brightwork ensemble as part of the Los Angeles based. Based on a poem by Wendell Berry To go into the dark with a light is to know the light To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight. and find that the dark too, blooms and sings and is travelled by dark feet and dark wings veiling of the sun - string quartet
Veiling of the Sun explores ideas and imagery associated with a solar eclipse. It explores different representations of light and uses timbral dissonance to represent the blocking out of light. These moments gradually increase in rhythmic pacing as the sun becomes more and more covered by the moon. The last passage represents the final glimpses of light around the edge of the moon before the eclipse reaches totality and darkness truly takes hold. WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD - SOPRANO WITH STRING QUARTET
Setting of selection of Wallace Stevens' 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' (1954) Prelude to I. Snowy mountains I. Snowy mountains Prelude to II. Three minds II. Three minds Prelude to III. The Pantomime III. The Pantomime IV. Barbaric glass IX. The Edge where my mind flies - clarinet, viola, piano
Where my mind flies has been written for the Towards a Shining Light – 50 for 50 project. This piece is a short explosion of an idea across the course of a minute. It spins out from an expressive melodic and timbral exploration into a dizzying explosion of rhythmic propulsion. This is a reflection of myself as a composer as I enjoy both the expressive melodic and timbral soundworld as well as the more chaotic running out of control rhythmic and driven material. I enjoy the tension of these two different musics and the transformation of one into the other where skies aflame - string quartet
Where skies aflame - string quartet (2023) 8'
Purchase Where skies aflame has been written for the Flux quartet for a commission from the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. When beginning this piece I was walking in a local area to me in the UK called Cannock Chase, formerly part of the Royal Forest of the Norman Kings of England. Even though I'd been there many times before, I had stumbled across an area that was new to me with a dramatic sandstone cliff, looking down at the deer herds and the heathland below. In the evening light I was struck by the dramatic skyline which seemed to evoke something more expansive beyond the horizon. With this in mind, I started researching and looking at images of the landscape in and around Santa Fe. This piece is inspired by my own local landscape, Santa Fe's landscape and skies, and my own imagination of what the atmosphere will be like in Santa Fe in the intense heat of August. |
PIANO
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around the darkening sun - bass clarinet and piano
as if in memory - flute and piano
As if in memory has been written for flautist Sophia Tegart and pianist Michael Sergow. The piece ties together the memory of birds songs we heard more clearly during the inital lockdown periods of the pandemic during 2020 and 2021. Hearing birdsong is a shared phenomenon, experienced seperately for many during those intial stages. Through this piece I bring together the aural landscape of the UK, focusing particularly on birds local to where I live in Staffordshire, with the aural landscape of Washington state where Sophia Tegart is based. I create an aural space where UK birdsong meets and interacts with US birdsong, something that would not exist in the real world; a tapestry of the sounds we could hear whilst not being able to be in a shared space. he piece is divided into five main movements that are punctuated by short musical bookmarks, returning to an unknown birdsong that I kept hearing throughout the pandemic and heard again whilst writing this work on a Britten-Pears Creative Retreat near the Red House in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. This bird song may be the same bird as one of the other birds I have represented and, perhaps, a keen-eared birdsong expert wil l be able to help me identify this bird. In each of the other movements a UK bird is paired with a US bird and a new aural space in which they co-exist and interact is created, sometimes blurred by memory and othertimes more crystaline in the representation of the birdsong and calls. Bookmark I - Unknown Bird I. A whisper in the branches - The Great tit and chipping sparrow Bookmark II - Unknown Bird - as if in memory II. As if in memory - The Blue tit and Yellow Warbler Bookmark III - Unknown bird and Wood Powee III. Cloudlight wings - The Goldfinch and Spotted Tawhee Bookmark IV - The Robin - as if in memory (UK and US Robins) IV. In the dusk of daybreak The Songthrush and Blackheaded Grosbeak Bookmark V - Unknown bird and the Goldfinch V. As one tilting across the sky - The Blackbird and Wood Poweee daybreak of dusk - cello and piano
Daybreak of dusk - cello and piano (2022) 4'
Purchase and perusal score Recording Recording with score video Daybreak of dusk has been written for the 'Piece a day project' project at the Tanglewood Music Festival 2022. dreams - violin and PIANO
Dreams - violin and piano (forthcoming) 20'
echo [punch] - alto saxophone and piano
in the blue of branches - violin and piano
In the blue of branches - violin and piano duet (2022) 5'
Purchase Perusal Recording Recording with score video In the blue of branches has been written for the 'Piece a day project' project at the Tanglewood Music Festival 2022. murmerations - piano six-hands
Murmerations is a new work for one piano and six hands written for the Arc Project's Beyond 88 project and for pianists Hannah. Kieran and Cameron.The explores shapes and gestures inspired by the movements observed in murmurations of starlings.The shapes and movements created by starlings flow together but at different speeds create a wave effect, this is reflected in the musical material - gestures and similar shapes but flowing at different speeds realised through rhythm and tempo night airs - pierrot ensemble with percussion
Night Airs - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2015) 7'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal Recording Night Airs is from a series of pieces inspired by the natural world and explores imagery of the night.The piece opens with a stillness that explores different timbral combinations to create unusual tone colours. This stillness is disturbed by energetic bursts of colour that act as pre-echoes to the more melodically and rhythmically agile faster section. The faster section continues to combine the instrumental voices in interesting ways and particularly shows off the agility of the flute and clarinet in duet passages. Dovetailing cascades return the music to the stillness of the opening as the night draws to a close. NOCTILUCENT - euphonium AND PIANO
Noctilucent - euphonium and piano (2022) 5'
arrangement of trumpet solo Purchase, perusal, and recording Noctilucent for solo euphonium was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the euphonium player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the trumpet's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. NOCTILUCENT - horn and PIANO
Noctilucent for solo horn was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the horn player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the trumpet's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. NOCTILUCENT - trombone and pIANO
Noctilucent for solo trombone was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the trombone player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the trumpet's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. noctilucent - trumpet and piano
Noctilucent for solo trumpet was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the trumpet player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the trumpet's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. noctilucent - tuba and piano
Noctilucent - tuba and piano (2023) 5'
arrangement of trumpet solo (Collection forthcoming) Learn about the Winds of Change project Noctilucent for solo tuba was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the tuba player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the tuba's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. out of the dust - soprano, cello, piano
punch echo - alto saxophone and piano
Punch: to strike with the fist. Echo: a sound or sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener. This work draws on the meaning of the words ‘punch’ and ‘echo’, representing these through the lens of Laban’s eight efforts. Laban movement analysis is a method and language for describing, interpreting and documenting human movement. I feel a deep connection between the gestural language of movement and music. Laban categorises movement into eight efforts, descriptively named Float, Punch (Thrust), Glide, Slash, Dab, Wring, Flick, and Press. In this work I explore the effort of ‘punch’ on both macro and micro levels, exploring the musical impact of a ‘punch’ and its subsequent aftermath, the echo effect Rainbow fires - piano trio
Rainbow Fires (2015) was written for the Fournier Trio as part of the Advanced Composition Course at the 2015 Dartington International Summer School, where my place was generously funded by the Boltini Trust. The pieces takes on the imagery and concept of rainbow fires, a rare natural phenomenon where clouds appear to be aflame with rainbow colours due ot light being refracted by ice crystals in the atmosphere. It explores the different colours and associates elements air, fire and ice with different colours. Shades of rain - piano trio
Shades of Rain has been written for the Prism piano trio as a commission for the Illuminate Women's Music 2019 Season I US-UK touring concert series. The piece explores the imagery and textures of different types of rain. The piece functions as though it is two movements happening within the same piece: Cloudburst and Petrichor. Cloudburst refers to an extreme amount of precipitation in a short period of time often accompanied by hail and thunderstorms. The piece reflects this with dramatic driving rhythms and strident dramatic chords from the piano. These spells of extreme dramatic rain and musical descents are interrupted by music representing Petrichor. 'Petrichor' is the pleasant aroma that occurs after rain has fallen for the first time after a dry period. These parts of the music are explored through expansive and reflective lyrical lines giving relief to the dramatic movements and figures found in the Cloudburst sections. The Illuminate Women's Music 2019 Season I concert series and commissions is supported by the PRS Open Fund for organisations. shadows create the night - piano quintet
Shadows create the Night - piano quintet (2015) 8'
2 violins, viola, cello, piano Purchase Perusal Recording Shadows Create the Night (2014) is loosely based on the poetic idea and narrative imagery of shadows coming together to form the darkness of the night. These shadows undergo transformations and interact in different ways throughout the night.The end of the piece represents the emergence of the dawn as the levels of light gradually increase and the dark shadows disappear as the night turns to day. This transformation is represented by the continually ascending cello note at the end,coloured by the violin harmonics. sky above the clouds - flexible ensemble, percussion, piano
Sky above the clouds - flexible ensemble, percussion, piano (2023) 10'
Sky above the clouds was commissioned by Contemporary Music for All for the 2023 CoMA Festival, with support from the PRS Foundation. The piece explores different senses of movement, colour and textures of an imagined sky. It is particularly inspired by Georgia O'Keefe's painting of the same name after I saw this work in Santa Fe's Georgia O'Keefe museum. It struck me how the sky is a constant, wherever I am. The sky is always present but wonderfully different from day to day, or even minute to minute(!) and from place to place. song of isolation - flute, piano, birdsong (electronics)
space between - soprano and piano
spinning colours | faded time - piano quartet
Spinning Colours | Faded Time - piano quartet (2021) 8'
violin, viola, cello, piano Purchase Perusal Recording Recording with score video Spinning Colours | Faded Time was written for the Trio Northumbria for the 2021 RMA Conference held at Newcastle University. The piece explores the ways that musical expressions of colour interact with musical renderings of Laban's eight efforts. Each gesture and colour has an associated weight, energy, and speed, creating interesting relationships between the instruments and their respective sonorities. The first half of the piece explores the slow Laban efforts: float, glide, wring, and press. The second half engages with the gestural efforts: flick, slash, dab, and punch, before the material disintegrates in the pure harmonics, seemingly ever longer each time. tangled breath in winter air - clarinet, cello, piano
I. Breathe II. Inhale III.Exhale Tangled breath in winter air is a work in three movements, written for Trio Sonorite as part of the Illuminate Women’ s Music Spring 2023 season. The work is a reflection on the sense of exhaustion I have been feeling, serving as a reminder to take time to breathe; to inhale and exhale; to be calm and reflect; to allow myself to be lost in the flow of creativity; to enjoy the beauty and emotion of that. The outer movements explore a reflective calm world rich in colour, expression and emotion, both in timbre and harmony. The middle movement – ‘ Inhale’ – evokes a sense of failing to be calm, a reflection of being overwhelmed by the world. to know the dark - pierrot ensemble with percussion
To know the dark - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2021) 8-10'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal To know the dark was commissioned by the Impuse New Music Festival 2021, for the Brightwork ensemble as part of the Los Angeles based. Based on a poem by Wendell Berry To go into the dark with a light is to know the light To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight. and find that the dark too, blooms and sings and is travelled by dark feet and dark wings tucked beneath - baritone and piano
Every fold pushes it deeper Its edges traced Tucked beneath skin Burrowing to release itself only to find a room four walls no door (poem written by Angela Elizabeth Slater) Tucked beneath is reflection of turmoil of emotions that the pandemic has instilled. Time itself feels as though it has been unfolding in new ways and that with every fold of time emotions can become more overwhelming but also result in us pushing them deeper inside, underneath the surfrace.The last lines of the poem shows how I have been searching for a sense of release, freedom outside of the pandemic situation but I find myself both mentally and physically being trapped which is reflected in the lines four walls, no door. where my mind flies - clarinet, viola, piano
Where my mind flies has been written for the Towards a Shining Light – 50 for 50 project. This piece is a short explosion of an idea across the course of a minute. It spins out from an expressive melodic and timbral exploration into a dizzying explosion of rhythmic propulsion. This is a reflection of myself as a composer as I enjoy both the expressive melodic and timbral soundworld as well as the more chaotic running out of control rhythmic and driven material. I enjoy the tension of these two different musics and the transformation of one into the other |
VOICE
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a tulip, iron - mezzo-soprano, tenor, violin, viola, cello
A tulip, iron - Mezzo-soprano, tenor, violin, viola, cello (2023) 12'
Text by Kendra Preston Leonard Purchase Recording Recording with score video Note from librettist Kendra Preston Leonard: a tulip, iron is about the fear and horror created by psychological and emotional abuse, the relief of escape from abuse, and the work required to contend with traumatic memories of it. Using Perle Fine’s work The Early Morning Garden (1957) as a focusing device for this lyric, I work with elements of the natural world as well as my own personal history. The mezzo soprano and tenor serve as protagonist and antagonist, respectfully, and I’ve made it deliberately unclear as to whether their texts and interactions are taking place in the present or are memories. The text is in three loose sections, through which the protagonist moves from fear and intense self-doubt into greater agency, grapples with the causes and extent of her wounds, recognizes how trauma has shaped her, and becomes able to distance herself from it. The antagonist diminishes and humiliates the protagonist, causing her to hesitate and sing in fragments of sentences. He calls her simple and an embarrassment, disparaging her mind and body and abilities, even as she begins to communicate more fully and lyrically and draws on a wider world for her outlook. Finally, he—or the memory of his words and actions—falls silent, becoming nothing to the protagonist, as she leaves the scene—or memory—with self- determination. Note from the composer Angela Elizabeth Slater: When I approached Kendra for a unique text to set, I asked her to explore memory as something difficult, questioning why certain things happened the way they happened, questioning yourself and whether things were your own fault. I wanted the text to draw on the deep intense emotions that still bubble over the surface from the bullying and gaslighting. I experienced at school. I have found this text deeply emotionally powerful to set. Alongside this, I engaged with the visual stimulus of Perle Fine's work The Early Morning Garden. Taken together, these helped me find a soundworld that is a mixture of fragility and strength, whilst exploring the nuances of colours and distinct gestural shapes for both the string players and the vocalists. The piece should be treated as an imagined scene from a larger narrative trajectory set ambiguously in memory or somewhere real; perhaps it is both. hunters silence - mezzo-soprano and cello
out of the dust - soprano, cello, piano
she was a woman - bassoon, harp, music box, spoken voices, electronics
She was a woman - bassoon, harp, music box, spoken voices, electronics (2021) 7'30"
Purchase Perusal written for Rosanna Moore and Blaire Koerner. I. Of Courage - Margaret Haig Thomas II. Of No Vote - Sofia Duleep Singh III. Of Suffrage - Emily Davison IV. Of Defiance - Ethel Smyth She was a woman was commissioned by Hats and Heels duo for bassoon and harp as part of their 'Women are...' series. The piece explores the lives, actions and words of four suffragettes; Margaret Haig Thomas, Sofia Duleep Singh, Emily Davison and Ethel Smyth. The text of each movement interweaves the composer's self-authored text based on her reflections of the lives and actions of these individuals, as well as their own words that comment on the bravery, determination and passion of the suffragette movement. The piece interweaves and evokes the music of Ethel Smyth (March of the Women; The Wreckers), Morfydd Owen's Nocturne for orchestra, and Grace Williams' Sea Sketches. space between - soprano and piano
tucked beneath - baritone and piano
Every fold pushes it deeper Its edges traced Tucked beneath skin Burrowing to release itself only to find a room four walls no door (poem written by Angela Elizabeth Slater) Tucked beneath is reflection of turmoil of emotions that the pandemic has instilled. Time itself feels as though it has been unfolding in new ways and that with every fold of time emotions can become more overwhelming but also result in us pushing them deeper inside, underneath the surfrace.The last lines of the poem shows how I have been searching for a sense of release, freedom outside of the pandemic situation but I find myself both mentally and physically being trapped which is reflected in the lines four walls, no door. twice removed - three voices (SSA)
Twice Removed (for three female voices - SSA) was written for the Juice ensemble for the Cheltenham Composers Academy 2018. The piece is a dramatic setting of a new text by the poet and playwright Helene Grøn.The piece explores the themes of loss, the loss of people, the loss of innocence and yourself leading to a feeling of disconnection from the world and from who you once were – therefore being twice removed. The text is split between the inner feelings of a woman and her outward conversations as she tries to conform with society, essentially creating two voices from the text that act in juxtaposition to each other.The third voice, sung by the alto, captures words from text of the inner voice sung by Sop 1 creating another inner voice with darker more pointed thoughts. The three voices come together as one at the end, 'Just tired, Yes from work' showing that all layers of this woman's thoughts know deep down that she must conform to society and project an image of being fine. ways of looking at a blackbird - soprano with string quartet
Setting of selection of Wallace Stevens' 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' (1954) Prelude to I. Snowy mountains I. Snowy mountains Prelude to II. Three minds II. Three minds Prelude to III. The Pantomime III. The Pantomime IV. Barbaric glass IX. The Edge NON-Existent for mezzo soprano, cello and percussion
Non-Existent was been written for members of the Psappha ensemble and mezzo-soprano Laura Bowler. The piece sets a self-authored text based on quotes from articles, social media and personal conversations surrounding climate change from both advocates for change, scientists and climate change deniers. Through this setting I hope to communicate the bombardment of information and absurdity of the things are said, along with the lack of action regarding climate change from our governments. The title 'Non-Existent' refers to how all human narratives are, in one sense, shared collective myths. If we continue to ignore the problem of climate change, the fate of our planet and species may lead to us being non-existent. Purchase Recording Perusal score |
WOODWINDS
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around the darkening sun - bass clarinet and piano
as if in memory - flute and piano
As if in memory has been written for flautist Sophia Tegart and pianist Michael Sergow. The piece ties together the memory of birds songs we heard more clearly during the inital lockdown periods of the pandemic during 2020 and 2021. Hearing birdsong is a shared phenomenon, experienced seperately for many during those intial stages. Through this piece I bring together the aural landscape of the UK, focusing particularly on birds local to where I live in Staffordshire, with the aural landscape of Washington state where Sophia Tegart is based. I create an aural space where UK birdsong meets and interacts with US birdsong, something that would not exist in the real world; a tapestry of the sounds we could hear whilst not being able to be in a shared space. he piece is divided into five main movements that are punctuated by short musical bookmarks, returning to an unknown birdsong that I kept hearing throughout the pandemic and heard again whilst writing this work on a Britten-Pears Creative Retreat near the Red House in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. This bird song may be the same bird as one of the other birds I have represented and, perhaps, a keen-eared birdsong expert wil l be able to help me identify this bird. In each of the other movements a UK bird is paired with a US bird and a new aural space in which they co-exist and interact is created, sometimes blurred by memory and othertimes more crystaline in the representation of the birdsong and calls. Bookmark I - Unknown Bird I. A whisper in the branches - The Great tit and chipping sparrow Bookmark II - Unknown Bird - as if in memory II. As if in memory - The Blue tit and Yellow Warbler Bookmark III - Unknown bird and Wood Powee III. Cloudlight wings - The Goldfinch and Spotted Tawhee Bookmark IV - The Robin - as if in memory (UK and US Robins) IV. In the dusk of daybreak The Songthrush and Blackheaded Grosbeak Bookmark V - Unknown bird and the Goldfinch V. As one tilting across the sky - The Blackbird and Wood Poweee DAWN - FLUTE AND CLARINET
DER SAME SUCHT DAS LICHT - ACCORDION, CLARINET, CELLO
Der Same sucht das Licht (the seed seeks the light) is a work written especial ly for Trio Tempestoso. The piece is inspired by the intriguing friendship between Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky. They engaged in an artistic dialogue between 1917- 1919, exchanging miniature works of art. The beginning of their exchange was Stravinsky's hotel telegram containing a short sketch of musical material for clarinet. This sketch served as the musical seed for my work and I have used the concept and structure of a tree to guide the work and the transformation of Stravinsky's five bar sketch. I. Der Same Sucht das Licht (c.6 minutes) II. Der Baum umgeben von Licht (c.5 minutes) III. Die Zweige nehmen das Licht auf (c. 4 minutes) Trio Tempestoso commissioned this work with the generous support of the RVW Trust and the Marchus Trust. Echo [punch] - alto saxophone and piano
etching colours - oboe and violin
Etching colours was written in June 2020 for Christopher Redgate and Peter Sheppard Skaerved for the RMA 2020 Conference, which was due to be held at University of Goldsmiths. I believe there is a deep connection between music and colour and this can be particularly explored in connection to timbre, density and texture. In this piece I have started to explore the concept of colour theory - a theory that investigates the basic principles of primary colours, and how mixing colours at different denigrations, density, and textures can change our perception of a colour. I have taken these principles to explore how colour within music can be manipulated through timbre, harmony, and instrumental colour. Through this I have started to categorise what the 'primary colours' of musical timbre may be and how timbral colours/extended techniques create similar sounds on different instruments. The piece cycles through different areas of colour exploration, each instrument follows the same order but not at the same rate, causing these bleeding moments of different colour within the piece. The colour cycle is in three layers - timbral, harmonic and textural - allowing new shadings and emphasis to be explored as the cycles meet at different points. FLICKERING AIRS IN COLOURED SKIES - STRING QUARTET, FLUTE, CLARINET
Flickering airs in coloured skies - string quartet, flute, and clarinet (2017) 7'30"
Purchase Perusal Recording with score video Flickering airs in coloured skies was written for the 2017 St Magnus Festival Composition Course. The piece explores the imagery and the beautiful colours of the Orkney’s rugged landscapes, capturing the essence of the rapid changes in the wild weather and the impact these have on the light qualities. An ethereal and tranquil section opens the piece, punctuated with off-stage air sounds from the winds, with string harmonics being used to create a transparent fragile sound that is soon disturbed by explosive bursts of energy that quickly dissipate into nothingness. As the piece progresses, the bursts become more sustained, representative of some of the turbulent weather that Orkney endures throughout the year. Each of the flickering airs returns a number of times throughout the piece, though always in a subtly different guise. FRACTAL LIGHT - OBOE QUARTET OR OBOE QUINTET
Fractal Light was written in late 2016 - early 2017 for the London Oboe Quartet. This piece explores the idea of fractal patterns that occur in lightning and bursts of shimmering light. The piece starts with more fragmentary material that then solidifies in the bold strikes of lightning before disintegrating again. FROZEN WATERFALL - FLUTE, VIOLIN, CELLO
Frozen Waterfall (2015) was written at CoMA summer school composition course. This piece explores the idea of water gradually freezing and the energy of its movement changing to still crystalised ice structures. Each instrument has its own material that gradually freeze at different rates, finally solidifying at the close of the work. GLACIATE FALLS - WIND NONET
Glaciate Falls - wind nonet (2017) 10'
flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, alto saxophone, horn, trumpet, trombone Purchase Perusal Recording The Glaciate Falls was written in late 2016 - early 2017 for the London Consort of winds in colloboration with choreographer Sara Roisland Torsvik as part of a dance project. This piece explores the idea of water gradually freezing and the energy of its movement changing to still crystalised ice structures. Each instrument has its own material that gradually freeze at different rates, finally solidifying at the close of the work. GLASS DOMINOES - oboe, CLARINET, MARIMBA, VIOLIN, VIOLA, CELLO
Glass dominoes - Oboe, clarinet, marimba, violin, viola and cello (2023) 7'
Purchase Recording Recording with score video Glass dominoes has been written for the Mostly Modern Ensemble. The work explores the notion of the chain reactions that split and fracture in different directions. There are gestures that cause the knock on effect of another instruments part but sometimes these flows are broken and interrupted by other forces. mirage - woodwind quintet
Mirage was written for the Vale of Glamorgan Festival as part of the Peter Reynolds Composition Studio course. Mirage: an optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of water in a desert or on a hot road caused by the refraction of light from the sky by heated air. Based on a poem by Angela Elizabeth Slater A certain certainty evaporated paraded for the mirage it was a false sense of security forever an alarm momentations - woodwind quintet
Momentations is driven by a sense of movement and momentum that is created by distinctive musical gestures. The piece is in one continous movement which is loosely divided into with seven sections. The gestures grow organically throughout, being presented in different guises. The rhythmic and melodic gestures were inspired by the imagery of dance movements and the idea of tightening and slackening the pace of movement. night airs - pierrot ensemble with percussion
Night Airs - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2015) 7'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal Recording Night Airs is from a series of pieces inspired by the natural world and explores imagery of the night.The piece opens with a stillness that explores different timbral combinations to create unusual tone colours. This stillness is disturbed by energetic bursts of colour that act as pre-echoes to the more melodically and rhythmically agile faster section. The faster section continues to combine the instrumental voices in interesting ways and particularly shows off the agility of the flute and clarinet in duet passages. Dovetailing cascades return the music to the stillness of the opening as the night draws to a close. punch echo - alto saxophone and piano
Punch: to strike with the fist. Echo: a sound or sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener. This work draws on the meaning of the words ‘punch’ and ‘echo’, representing these through the lens of Laban’s eight efforts. Laban movement analysis is a method and language for describing, interpreting and documenting human movement. I feel a deep connection between the gestural language of movement and music. Laban categorises movement into eight efforts, descriptively named Float, Punch (Thrust), Glide, Slash, Dab, Wring, Flick, and Press. In this work I explore the effort of ‘punch’ on both macro and micro levels, exploring the musical impact of a ‘punch’ and its subsequent aftermath, the echo effect Sakura: The falling of the blossom - oboe, cello, koto, shakuhachi
Sakura; The Falling of the Blossom - oboe, cello, koto, shakuhachi quartet (2015) 6'
Purchase Perusal Recording Sakura - The Falling of the Blossom (2015) loosly explores the narrative and imagery of Cherry Blossom before and when they fall. It is a piece that explores timbres and changes, as the end of the cherry blossom indicates the changing of seasons. she was a woman - bassoon, harp, music box, spoken voices, electronics
written for Rosanna Moore and Blaire Koerner. I. Of Courage - Margaret Haig Thomas II. Of No Vote - Sofia Duleep Singh III. Of Suffrage - Emily Davison IV. Of Defiance - Ethel Smyth She was a woman was commissioned by Hats and Heels duo for bassoon and harp as part of their 'Women are...' series. The piece explores the lives, actions and words of four suffragettes; Margaret Haig Thomas, Sofia Duleep Singh, Emily Davison and Ethel Smyth. The text of each movement interweaves the composer's self-authored text based on her reflections of the lives and actions of these individuals, as well as their own words that comment on the bravery, determination and passion of the suffragette movement. The piece interweaves and evokes the music of Ethel Smyth (March of the Women; The Wreckers), Morfydd Owen's Nocturne for orchestra, and Grace Williams' Sea Sketches. Song of isolation - flute, piano, birdsong (electronics)
sun catcher - woodwind quintet
Sun Catcher for wind quintet was written for the Atéa Wind Quintet commissioned by the 2018 York Late Music concert series . A Sun Catcher is a metal object that spins in the wind capturing the sunlight and creating colourful patterns.There are also many myths and folklore tales related to how the sun was once captured, and either fixed in its proper sphere or else made to stand still in the sky. Other tales explore the idea of capturing the sun and bringing it down so darkness could prevail. Sun Catcher explores both themes, therefore essentially having two different musical ideas happening simultaneously in parts of the piece.The first is serene and expressive exploring shimmering light and colour. The second is a fast, underlating and increasingly agtitated music. This gradually infiltrates each instrument's line and captures the serene music from before, holding it hostage on a manic rampage and race to the end of the piece. tangled breath in winter air - clarinet, cello, piano
I. Breathe II. Inhale III.Exhale Tangled breath in winter air is a work in three movements, written for Trio Sonorite as part of the Illuminate Women’ s Music Spring 2023 season. The work is a reflection on the sense of exhaustion I have been feeling, serving as a reminder to take time to breathe; to inhale and exhale; to be calm and reflect; to allow myself to be lost in the flow of creativity; to enjoy the beauty and emotion of that. The outer movements explore a reflective calm world rich in colour, expression and emotion, both in timbre and harmony. The middle movement – ‘ Inhale’ – evokes a sense of failing to be calm, a reflection of being overwhelmed by the world. the light blinds - clarinet, string quartet
The Light Blinds - clarinet quintet (2022)
clarinet, string quartet Purchase Perusal Recording with score video The dark engulfs and the light blinds in neither a sight is seen in clarity a blur, desperate to find a firm grip in focus to know the dark - pierrot ensemble with percussion
To know the dark - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2021) 8-10'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal To know the dark was commissioned by the Impuse New Music Festival 2021, for the Brightwork ensemble as part of the Los Angeles based. Based on a poem by Wendell Berry To go into the dark with a light is to know the light To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight. and find that the dark too, blooms and sings and is travelled by dark feet and dark wings where my mind flies - clarinet, viola, piano
Where my mind flies has been written for the Towards a Shining Light – 50 for 50 project. This piece is a short explosion of an idea across the course of a minute. It spins out from an expressive melodic and timbral exploration into a dizzying explosion of rhythmic propulsion. This is a reflection of myself as a composer as I enjoy both the expressive melodic and timbral soundworld as well as the more chaotic running out of control rhythmic and driven material. I enjoy the tension of these two different musics and the transformation of one into the other |
BRASS
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glaciate falls - wind nonet
Glaciate Falls - wind nonet (2017) 10'
flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, alto saxophone, horn, trumpet, trombone Purchase Perusal Recording The Glaciate Falls was written in late 2016 - early 2017 for the London Consort of winds in colloboration with choreographer Sara Roisland Torsvik as part of a dance project. This piece explores the idea of water gradually freezing and the energy of its movement changing to still crystalised ice structures. Each instrument has its own material that gradually freeze at different rates, finally solidifying at the close of the work. light dispelled - brass quintet
Light Dispelled takes inspiration from the poem titled Twilight written by Walt Whitman: TWILIGHT. The soft voluptuous opiate shades, The sun just gone, the eager light dispell'd—(I too will soon be gone, dispell'd,) A haze—nirwana—rest and night—oblivion. noctilucent - euphonium and piano
Noctilucent - euphonium and piano (2022) 5'
arrangement of trumpet solo Purchase, perusal, and recording Noctilucent for solo euphonium was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the euphonium player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the euphonium's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. noctilucent - horn and piano
Noctilucent - horn and piano (2023) 5'
arrangement of trumpet solo Purchase, perusal, and recording Noctilucent for solo horn was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the horn player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the horn's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. noctilucent - trombone and piano
Noctilucent for solo trombone was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the trombone player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the trombone's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. noctilucent - trumpet and piano
Noctilucent for solo trumpet was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the trumpet player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the trumpet's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. Noctilucent - Tuba and piano
Noctilucent - tuba and piano (2023) 5'
arrangement of trumpet solo (Collection forthcoming) Learn about the Winds of Change project Noctilucent for solo tuba was written for Carrie Blosser and Ashley Killam as part of their Diversify the Stand project. Noctilucent takes the tuba player on a journey of nuanced colour exploration through single tones that are interrupted with explosive moments of colour. The piano picks out notes from the tuba's melodic line as though capturing and pulling threads to form new shapes and colour. The process of the composition, and the shapes and colours it explores, are inspired by the imagery and formation process of Noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are extremely rare. They are very high clouds seen in the night sky, usually on clear, summer nights. They become visible about the same time as the brightest stars and are usually bluish or silvery. They are formed of ice crystals that refract the colours to create a beautiful spectrum of blues and other colours. Noctilucent clouds are only visible during astronomical twilight, which is where the geometric centre of the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. |
PERCUSSION
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glass dominoes - oboe, clarinet, marimba, violin, viola, cello
Glass dominoes - Oboe, clarinet, marimba, violin, viola and cello (2023) 7'
Purchase Recording Recording with score video Glass dominoes has been written for the Mostly Modern Ensemble. The work explores the notion of the chain reactions that split and fracture in different directions. There are gestures that cause the knock on effect of another instruments part but sometimes these flows are broken and interrupted by other forces. night airs - PIERROT ENSEMBLE WITH PERCUSSION
Night Airs - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2015) 7'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal Recording Night Airs is from a series of pieces inspired by the natural world and explores imagery of the night.The piece opens with a stillness that explores different timbral combinations to create unusual tone colours. This stillness is disturbed by energetic bursts of colour that act as pre-echoes to the more melodically and rhythmically agile faster section. The faster section continues to combine the instrumental voices in interesting ways and particularly shows off the agility of the flute and clarinet in duet passages. Dovetailing cascades return the music to the stillness of the opening as the night draws to a close. sky above the clouds - flexible ensemble, percussion, piano
Sky above the clouds - flexible ensemble, percussion, piano (2023) 10'
Sky above the clouds was commissioned by Contemporary Music for All for the 2023 CoMA Festival, with support from the PRS Foundation. The piece explores different senses of movement, colour and textures of an imagined sky. It is particularly inspired by Georgia O'Keefe's painting of the same name after I saw this work in Santa Fe's Georgia O'Keefe museum. It struck me how the sky is a constant, wherever I am. The sky is always present but wonderfully different from day to day, or even minute to minute(!) and from place to place. to know the dark - pierrot ensemble with percussion
To know the dark - Pierrot ensemble with percussion (2021) 8-10'
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion Purchase Perusal To know the dark was commissioned by the Impuse New Music Festival 2021, for the Brightwork ensemble as part of the Los Angeles based. Based on a poem by Wendell Berry To go into the dark with a light is to know the light To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight. and find that the dark too, blooms and sings and is travelled by dark feet and dark wings |
GUITAR
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DRIFTING SPELLS - GUITAR WITH LOOP PEDAL
Drifting Spells inspiration comes from the memory of Codale tarn a small high up (but extremely dark tarn beyond Easedale tarn in the lake district. I found this tarn to have a mysterious quality. It looks untouched like a dark sapphire, or black mirror, it was so flat and still it could have been solid.The passing weather systems of the lakes seem to drift past unable to affect this tarn. The piece explores different patterns that change,blend and drift past each other. The piece builds to a violent and passionate setion with percussion hits on the guitar reflecting the dark intensity of this tarn. INTO THE SCARLET SKY - SHAKUHACHI AND GUITAR
Into the Scarlet Sky for classical guitar and shakuhachi was written for Gemma MacGregor and Cassie Matthews for the 2018 Illuminate concert series. This concert series was founded and artistically directed by Angela Elizabeth Slater. The concert series seeks to promote the work of women composers past and present, and women performers. The 2018 Illuminate concert series activities have been supported by the Ambache Charitable Trust, Gemma Classical Music Trust, and the Hinrichsen Foundation. THE MOON IS FALLING - VIOLIN AND GUITAR
The Moon is Falling was written in late August 2016 while on the Druskininkai Artist Residency programme in Lithuania. The piece has since been revised for the 2018 Illumimate concert series and will receive its premiere at these concerts. The piece explores ideas and imagery of the moon. After I heard the phrase 'the moon is always falling' on a radio programme my imagination was captured. The idea of this apparently motionless object, seemingly so calm and serene, essentially being in a paradoxical state of falling towards the earth without ever getting any closer to it. The piece explores these themes, which emphasise the contradictory power of gravity to generate massive speeds and force, whilst appearing to be in a state of serene stasis |
SOLO WORK
WINDS
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a moments breath - flute
as the moon runs red - trumpet
As the Moon runs Red was written Sept-Oct 2016 for Simon Desbrulais. The piece is inspired by a Lunar Elipse, a natural phenonmenon where the Earth blocks the Suns light from reaching the moon. As the moon passes behind the Earth the shortest light lengths of colours such as violet and blue are scattered as they go through the Earth's atmosphere, leaving the longer wavelengths such as orange and red. This means the moon appears to go a deep red colour as the only light able to reach it is these longer wavelengths. This piece explores the imagery of a Lunar Elipse and the gradual scattering of each colour before the only red colours the moon. echoed - flute with glissandi headjoint
Echoed is a new solo work for flute, written especially for Emma Coulthard as part of the Arts Council England funded project Connected skies: solo series challenge. In this project, composer Angela Elizabeth Slater has set out to write six new works for double bass, cello, flute, accordion, percussion and mezzo-soprano between October 2020-May 2021. Echoed is the fourth piece in the Connected skies collection of solo pieces. All the pieces are reflective of the difficult times of 2020, drawing on a poem authored by the composer. Echoed explores the imagery of this poetic text, and refers to the 'Echo' myth. When the sky enclosed around me Shrinking ever smaller I found woven half dreams fractured in spaces inbetween which ache and scream I tried to shut the noise out but it echoed right back at me never to leave or fully be enclosing skies - accordion
Enclosing skies is a new solo work for accordion especially written for Kamila Olas as part of the Arts Council England funded project Connected skies: solo series challenge where composer Angela Elizabeth Slater has set out to write six new works for double bass, cello, flute, accordion, percussion and mezzo soprano between October 2020- May 2021. Enclosing skies is the third piece in the Connected skies collection for solo pieces. All of the pieces are relective of the difficult times of 2020, drawing on a poem authored by Angela Elizabeth Slater as well. Enclosing skies explores the expanse of our world and how these times makes it feel that is it enclosing in around us, growing ever smaller. When the sky enclosed around me Shrinking ever smaller I found woven half dreams fractured in spaces inbetween which ache and scream I tried to shut the noise out but it echoed right back at me never to leave or fully be fleeting airs - moldovian kaval
Fleeting Airs - Moldovian Kaval (2018) 5' Purchase LAMPROPTERA MEGES - OBOE D'AMORE
NACREOUS CONTOURS - CLARINET
Nacreous Contours (2016) was written for Dov Goldberg as part of the Psappha Composing for Clarinet scheme 2015-2016. The piece explores the imagery of nacreous cloud, travelling through the base of the cloud, and up to the pearly ethers at the top. ON THE WIND COLOURS SPEAK - BASSOON AND FIXED MEDIA
On the wind colours speak was written in July 2020 for Ronan Whittern from Nevis Ensemble commissioned by Uist Hub: Sharon Clark, Samanta Groza, Maisie Wheeler and Zantay Brindley. After my conversations with the Hub members in Uist I was struck by the different colours they described were present there in the sky, grass and water. I believe there is a deep connection between music and colour and this can be particularly explored in connection to timbre, density and texture. So taking the imagery conjured up from our conversations, shared photographs and pictures I have embarked on musically representing some of the beautiful subtleties of colours and the more dramatic sudden darker colours caused by Uist's ever changing weather. The Balvanic beach was described as having as many shades of blue as you can imagine. Another student described Uist as being unpredictable like a Picasso painting and mentioned the colours yellow, dark grey and crimson. In this piece I have started to explore the concept of colour theory - a theory that investigates the basic principles of primary colours, and how mixing colours at different denigrations, density, and textures can change our perception of a colour. I have taken these principles to explore how colour within music can be manipulated through timbre, harmony, and instrumental colour and help to convey and evoke the dramatic Uist coastal landscape. THREE STREAMS IN TIME - CLARINET
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STRINGS
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a door to yesterday - double bass
A door to yesterday comprises of 7 short movements written for Maggie Cox and Sean o'Hara for Tanglewood 2020 online Festival. I. Outstretched Wings II. Fireflies in the twisted light III. Circles edges hold IV. Unfolding Knots V. Fractal Bursts VI. Tracing shadows through VII. A door to yesterday dispersions in watercolour - solo violin (or viola or cellO)
Dipersions in Watercolour - solo violin (2018) 10'
versions for solo viola and solo cello are also available Purchase Violin perusal // Viola perusal // Cello perusal Recording Recording with score video Dispersions in Watercolour explores ideas the ways that the colour of watercolour paints dissipates across a canvas. When you inititally make a mark on a canvas the colour is rich, before seeping away on the contours of the surface texture, creating delicate branches of fading colour. It was with this in mind that Dispersions in Watercolour was written. drifting spells - guitar with loop pedal
Drifting Spells inspiration comes from the memory of Codale tarn a small high up (but extremely dark tarn beyond Easedale tarn in the lake district. I found this tarn to have a mysterious quality. It looks untouched like a dark sapphire, or black mirror, it was so flat and still it could have been solid.The passing weather systems of the lakes seem to drift past unable to affect this tarn. The piece explores different patterns that change,blend and drift past each other. The piece builds to a violent and passionate setion with percussion hits on the guitar reflecting the dark intensity of this tarn frost flowers - violin
Frost Flower is short two-movement work for solo violin. It depicts the formation of a ‘frost flower’, a natural phenomenon also known as ‘ice blossom’. A frost flower is a condition where many thin layers of ice extrude from the stem of plants in autumn or early winter. These layers of ice form intricate and exquisite patterns that curl into formations resembling ‘petals’, collectively forming something akin to a flower. The piece shows the ‘life-cycle’ of a frost flower, balancing the austere beauty with the natural fragility of the formations. the aching space between - double bass
The aching space between is a new solo work for double bass especially written for Maggie Cox as part of the Arts Council England funded project Connected skies: solo series challenge where composer Angela Elizabeth Slater has set out to write six new works for double bass, cello, flute, accordion, percussion and mezzo soprano between October 2020-May 2021. The aching space between explores the turmoil of emotions and pain associated with this ongoing time of social distancing and not being able to connect with friends, family and loved ones in the way we need to as humans; the frustration and desperation caused by what feels like sometimes an endless place we find ourselves in. The aching space is the second piece in the Connected skies collection of solo pieces. All the pieces are reflective of the difficult times of 2020, drawing on a poem authored by Angela Elizabeth Slater as well. When the sky enclosed around me Shrinking ever smaller I found woven half dreams fractured in spaces inbetween which ache and scream I tried to shut the noise out but it echoed right back at me never to leave or fully be woven half dreams - cello
Woven half dreams is a new solo work for cello, written especially for Sarah Gait as part of the Arts Council England funded project Connected skies: solo series challenge. In this project, composer Angela Elizabeth Slater has set out to write six new works for double bass, cello, flute, accordion, percussion and mezzo soprano between October 2020-May 2021. Woven half dreams is the second piece in the Connected skies collection of solo pieces. All the pieces are reflective of the difficult times of 2020, drawing on a poem authored by Angela Elizabeth Slater as well. Woven half dreams explores unfurling threads and lines that are interrupted by burst of aggressive energetic passages. These aggressive bursts become increasingly prominent until they push the weaving lines completely away in the centre of the piece, before returning to the weaving lines in delicate harmonic threads to the end of the piece. When the sky enclosed around me Shrinking ever smaller I found woven half dreams fractured in spaces inbetween which ache and scream I tried to shut the noise out but it echoed right back at me never to leave or fully be |
PERCUSSION
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shut out the noise - percussion
Shut out the Noise is a new solo work for percussion, written especially for Iris van den Bos as part of the Arts Council England funded projected Connected skies: solo series challenge. In this project, composer Angela Elizabeth Slater has set out to write six new works for double bass, cello, flute, accordion, percussion and mezzo soprano between October 2020-May 2021. Shut out the Noise is the fifth piece in the Connected skies collection of solo works. All the pieces are relective of the difficult times of 2020 and 2021, drawing on a poem authored by the composer, Shut out the Noise explores the feeling of being overwhelmed by the news, social media and the situation of Covid-19. When the sky enclosed around me Shrinking ever smaller I found woven half dreams fractured in spaces inbetween which ache and screams I tried to shut the noise out but it echoed right back at me never to leave or fully be |
PIANO
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night mirrors - piano
Night Mirrors is based on the imagery of the Salar de Uyuni (or Salar de Tunupa) which is is the world's largest salt flat and largest natural occuring mirror.When darkness falls on a clear night, the night sky is reflected by the salt flat, creating a 360 view of the universe. Night Mirrors takes this idea and explores the shapes and stars of the universe in the night sky and its mirror-image.The piece explores the depths and height of space, the drama and the stillness, using symmetry and reflection throughout the piece in different ways to create a musical mirror. three reflections - piano
we're all mad here - toy piano
'We're all mad here' was written for Xenia Pestova for the Centre Stage Spotlight of Female Composers event in Leeds at the White Cloth Gallery on 1st September 2015. The piece tries to capture the spirit of the quote from Lewis Caroll's novel Alice in Wonderland. It is full of quirky rhythmic changes that never allow the piece to fully settle. The central section obsessively rotates around the same notes, with unexpected rhythmic alterations throwing the pattern off balance, before returning to the insanity of the beginning. |
HARP
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sky burst - harp
Sky Burst (2017) 6' Purchase |
VOICE
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never to leave - mezzo-soprano
Never to leave is a new solo work for mezzo soprano, written especially for Kameryn Lueng as part of the Arts Council England funded projected Connected skies: solo series challenge. In this project, composer Angela Elizabeth Slater has set out to write six new works for double bass, cello, flute, accordion, percussion and mezzo soprano between October 2020-May 2021. Never to leave is the final work in the Connected skies collection of solo pieces. All the pieces are reflective of the difficult times of 2020 and 2021, drawing on a poem authored by the composer. Never to leave sets this poem that has been the unifying link between all the pieces. It reflects our times but also references the previous five works as though completing a song cycle. When the sky enclosed around me Shrinking ever smaller I found woven half dreams fractured in spaces inbetween which ache and screams I tried to shut the noise out but it echoed right back at me never to leave or fully be |