TIM REYNISH WEBSITE

HOMEPAGE JULY 1ST

I hope that you are all having a great summer or winter and can face a quick browse around programme ideas for next year.

We have recently passed the fifth anniversary of the death of our third son in a climbing accident in the Pyrenees.

In the past five years, Hilary and I have commissioned some twenty works in memory of William and a brief return last month to the RNCM resulted in world premieres of two major additions to the repertoire, programme notes below.

PROGRAMME NOTES & INDEX

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NEW ARTICLES                                                    

Article - Performance Practice

Article - Taming the Decibels

Article - Not a Core Repertoire List

Article - Simon Rattle in Interview

Four new articles were posted late in June, two on our perennial problem of controlling our forces – Performance Practice & Taming the Decibels, one of repertoire which is NOT in the “Core Repertoire Lists”, and an interview which Simon Rattle gave me before a performance of Gran Duo.

LIFE BEYOND THE SYMPHONY OF WIND INSTRUMENTS

It is Wimbledon time, and its good to have John McEnroe back giving advice. Would that he were interested in wind ensemble, because Gran Duo is of course a Boosey & Hawkes publication, and a browse through my article You Can Not be Serious will remind conductors of other Boosey and Hawkes “serious” publications for wind.

Meanwhile my own personal attempt to help create a repertoire representative of the 21st Century continues with these two magnificent works by Horne and Roxburgh, and the rest of the 

WILLIAM REYNISH COMMISSIONING PROJECT

2001-2006

INDEX

TWO WORLD PREMIERES - ROXBURGH & HORNE

By the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra

Tuesday June 27th, 2006 at 7.30 pm.

Conductor Timothy Reynish

Solo Oboe, Melinda Maxwell

Waves and Refrains - David Horne

Around fifteen minutes long, the musical ideas in the piece grow out of the perfect fifths heard at the opening, creating to my mind a kind of virtuosic tone-poem. The various groupings also suggest a 'concerto' for the ensemble. There are two different 'refrains' at play, the most obvious being the declamatory series of chords heard in the percussion. Only using tuned percussion throughout, the section is removed on a musical level from the rest of the ensemble These interjections occur at regular moments in the piece, and catalyse various shifts in mood. The second refrain is a single melodic line, usually performed by heterogeneous duos in unison, and unaccompanied. Around these refrains, the music surges constantly, the nature of its ebb and flow suggesting the 'waves' referred to in the title.

Waves and Refrains was commissioned by Timothy and Hilary Reynish in memory of their son William, who died in the Pyrenees in May 2001.

INDEX

An Elegy for Ur - Edwin Roxburgh

A concerto for oboe and wind orchestra

Ur could be described as the womb of history. It was a civilization which produced ‘works of art so rich and technically so perfect’, as Sir Leonard Woolley described early Mesopotamian art. Modern Iraq inhabits the same soil and for several millennia the country has cared for its invaluable artefacts. As a result of the catastrophic invasion by the USA and the UK this rich heritage was plundered and despoiled in the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.. The earliest surviving musical instrument, the Royal Lyre of Ur, was among the treasures that were either destroyed or stolen. This may not seem as barbaric as the invasion itself, in which thousands of innocent women and children were slaughtered, but it is equally tragic. The world of culture cannot influence the decisions of politicians but it can record a protest for history. Hence, the title of this work.

In dedicating An Elegy for Ur to its commissioners, Hilary and Timothy Reynish, in memory of their son, William, I am aware that they share the sorrow which so many of us feel for the victims of conflict in Iraq, together with the country’s artistic treasures.

The music takes the form of flourishing rhapsodies for the solo oboist, separated by rhythmic interludes which feature the main orchestra in virtuosic gestures. There is a metaphorical relationship between the oboist and the subject of the piece in that the soloist presents a somewhat anguished melody in the rhapsodies, whereas the orchestra displays what can only be described as anger about the atrocities of the Iraq invasion. The augmented 4th and minor 6th are displayed in all the linear substance and harmonic structure in characterising the nature of the piece. In the cadenza the soloist creates a commentary on all that has happened musically, leading to a conclusion in which both elements are combined. While the metaphor has been a strong motivating factor in the composition process, the work is essentially an abstract musical conception.

The composer is privileged to have had the work commissioned by Hilary and Timothy Reynish. It is an added privilege to have this première performed by Melinda Maxwell, who is one of our finest oboists. The distinguished service which both she and Tim have given to music is widely respected.

DAVID HORNE

David Horne was born in Scotland in 1970 and captured attention in his late-teens with an impressive series of chamber ensemble works. His studies continued at Harvard and he received fellowships from Tanglewood and Marlboro, and many awards including a commission from the Koussevitsky Foundation. He has been commissioned and performed by international soloists and orchestras including Boris Beresovsky, Evelyn Glennie, Nobuko Imai, Fred Sherry, Ygdrassil String Quartet (Stockholm), the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and London Philharmonia. In addition, his music has been performed by groups such as the California E.A.R. Unit, The Fires of London, Mendelssohn String Quartet, Speculum Musicae, Orchestra 2001, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Ensemble für Neue Musik Zurich He is an accomplished pianist, and made his Proms debut in 1990and from 20000-2004 he was Composer in Residence with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to his composition activities, David is also sought after as an educator. Most recently, he has worked in this capacity with the London Sinfonietta, BCMG, RLPO, the Sage Gateshead, and as a course leader at the Britten-Pears School. He teaches composition at the RNCM. 

Premieres this summer include Waves and Refrains by the RNCM Wind Orchestra in Manchester (Jun) and The Turn of the Tide by Scottish Chamber Orchestra at Cheltenham Festival (Jul).

EDWIN ROXBURGH

The diverse activities of instrumental performing, conducting and teaching have been constant motivations to Edwin Roxburgh’s principal profession, composing. His music has been performed, broadcast and televised in many countries, most recently, his Clarinet Concerto with Gervaise de Peyer and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which the composer conducted.

He was born in Liverpool in 1937 and began his musical training as a chorister at the Anglican Cathedral. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music where he studied composition with Herbert Howells. Further awards enabled him to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence. He subsequently studied at Cambridge and was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize in 1960, and the Lili Boulanger Trust Award in 1962. In 1978 he was awarded a Collard Fellowship and in 1980 the Cobbett Medal for services to chamber music.

As a conductor he has worked constantly in presenting a vast range of contemporary music with most of the major British orchestras. His work as R.V.W. Fellow in Composition at the R.C.M. provided scope to perpetuate this in his teaching, with works such as Boulez’s Pli selon pli in his wide repertoire of performances, which are regularly broadcast by the BBC.

As an oboist he has premiered many works and pioneered the extended techniques associated with his own and Holliger’s music. He was Principal Oboe of Sadlers Wells Opera from 1964-1967 and while a member of the Menuhin Festival Orchestra was co-author with Goossens of the Menuhin Music Guide, The Oboe.

Roxburgh has composed an impressive stream of music including two works commissioned by Menuhin and filmed for the television arts programme Aquarius. Commissioners and performers represent a wide spectrum of professional involvement including Menuhin and the BBC and the actor Prunella Scales. He is currently the Associate Composer of the London Festival Orchestra and holds a Leverhulme Emeritus Research Fellowship. His music is published by United Music Publishers, Ricordi and Maecenus. Warehouse Records and NMC are amongst the recording companies who have recorded his music.