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Andy Meyers, our conductor, has published a number of pieces on Sibelius Music |
This page has details of some works which have been specially written for the Kingston Chamber Orchestra.
Sinfonietta (Bertel Haugen, November 2007)
Bertel Haugen was born in Wales to a Dutch mother and Norwegian father.
He feels himself to be a true European.
He comes from a very musical family and he was surrounded by music from a very early age.
Bertel was taught in Welsh at school and he is still greatly influenced by Welsh music and Welsh culture.
He taught himself to play the guitar at 16 and he hasn't looked back since.
Bertel is primarily a songwriter but he very much enjoys writing instrumental music as well.
Bertel has written many songs, a film score and several pieces for instrument and tape.
His influences vary from Stravinsky to Sigur Ros, from Joni Mitchell to Joanna Newsom and from Britten to the Beatles.
You can find Bertel's myspace page
here.
Sinfonietta is an exploration of varied states of consciousness from the subconscious to the fully conscious.
The first movement represents the mind in a subconscious state.
The strings play a five-chord texture throughout, while the woodwind twitters in and out with unrelated patterns.
The second movement represents a 'daydream-like' state between the subconscious and the conscious.
The harmonic language of the first movement is used to create a theme.
This theme is treated in a fugue-like fashion, and is transposed to create an answer.
Unlike a normal fugue, the theme is transposed a third time.
The theme and its various answers gradually build until it becomes stuck in a small fragment.
This repeats in an almost obsessive manner until it completely breaks down into a free rhythm section.
The movement ends with a return to the theme with the harmony from the first movement.
The third movement represents the completely unconscious mind.
It is perhaps a slightly unwelcome consciousness.
Dramatic stabs build to a climax and the theme from the second movement comes in with gusto.
Two Colours for Orchestra (Matthew Print, June 2007)
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| Matthew Print |
Matthew Print grew up in the West Midlands and began composing during the later stages of his musical studies,
initially learning to play the piano.
He is currently undertaking an undergraduate BMus degree in Music Composition at Kingston University, London,
where he has won the department's composition competition for three consecutive years.
His composition style is eclectic, drawing on influences from musical theatre as well as the concert hall.
Two Colours for Orchestra is Matthew's first work for orchestra.
The piece takes simple melodic ideas and transforms them throughout the two movements.
The first movement is dark and haunting; this is contrasted with the vibrant, dance-like second movement.
Both movements share common melodic and rhythmic fragments though they are presented differently through the use of orchestral colour,
hence the title.
You can find Matthew's Sibelius page
here.
The Blaze of the Diamond, the Moment of Hours (David Lewiston Sharpe, June 2006)
This is the second work that David has written specially for the KCO. He says:
The piece celebrates the marriage in February 2006 of my friends Simon and Detta and takes its title from a poem called Love
by the 19th century poet John Clare:
The kernel of fruits
The germ of all flowers
The blaze of the diamond
The moment of hours
The mood conjured is meant to be one of wistful, romantic memory - musically anachronistic perhaps,
but a sentiment wholly appropriate to the intention.
There are two themes, the first appearing in the strings after a short halting introduction,
the second presented by the oboe after a developing link.
The themes appear reversed in the last section of the piece, with the oboe still carrying its own theme
and a solo violin concluding with the first main melody before a brief coda.
Present Tense (Mike Greenway, March 2006)
Having started out in the field of song-writing and production,
Mike subsequently spent 10 years as Musical Director and composer for the local Kingston theatre group 'Spring Grove Fringe.'
He has also composed for several short films and other drama productions.
Currently (putting on hold his interior design business) he is nearing the end of a BMus degree course at Kingston University specialising in music composition.
'Present Tense' explores the idea that the perception of the rate at which time passes can change
for different people at different times in their lives; even though actual time, as measured in minutes and seconds, remains constant.
The tempo goes through four distinct increases with each section containing the same total number of beats,
thus representing the illusion that time is passing more quickly as one gets older.
Motifs, and fragments of them, are constantly expanded and contracted as different time signatures are juxtaposed,
as time seems to speed up ... or drag ...
This concept is set against an ever-present tension, which also evolves as events, planned or unplanned, occur throughout daily life.
Stone of the 7 Kings (David Lewiston Sharpe, November 2004)
David has written this work specially for the KCO. He says:
The piece is a set of variations on a theme that comprises two melodic ideas.
Each variation intends to depict an event from each of the reigns of the seven Saxon kings
whose coronations were held at Kingston in the 10th century.
There is a sequence of seven chords that divides the first theme in half
but which provides a harmonic scheme for the whole sequence of variations.
These chords return portentously at the end, in reverse order, to signify the seven Danegold ransoms
- paid to the Vikings - that effectively ended the line of kings.
The title doesn't really refer to the origin of the name of Kingston
(which I believe derives from "Cyning estun" - Anglo-Saxon for the "king's estate").
It is to do with the Corontation Stone that is kept outside the Guildhall in Kingston town centre.
The stone is believed to have been used at the coronation of the seven kings referred to.
The music - if I can wax lyrical for a moment - is intended to express the sense of history and memory
that the stone might be believed to have recorded and still possess.
This is something that I try to do generally in the music I write:
it all draws inspiration from the idea of memory (both from a cultural history point of view and also personal experiences).
Ancient history is a preoccupation of mine.
David has written the following poem to accompany the work.
Stone of the Seven Kings
The chronicles reveal the presage and the sign that kings
Shall come to bear the crown: eclipse and comet mark the fall
Of Viking Danelaw's hold to England's East. This music sings
Of EADWARD first who in the year nine-hundred heard the squall
That war betokened, then ahead of him - sword blade rings
And shields gleam bright, but hear the victor's song sing proud its call:
Albion was rising - from their life-blood's sacrificing.
At Brunanburh the King's son AETHELSTAN, who took the crown -
As had his father - on the stone at Kingston, by the river,
Met the Viking hordes to take the North and win renown:
See these hooves of shire horses, hauberk, helm, deliver
Victory - as happened at that now-forgotten town:
For barely has the air recalled the breezy archer's quiver.
Albion had risen - from its cold anarchic prison.
The weakness of a king predicts the breaking of the line
As had, perhaps, the illnesses of EADRED, in whose reign
The Viking lord of Dublin struck the North to force decline.
The strength of stone-bound lineage evinced a sickened stain,
Though this was more a warning than sure certainty's design:
In spite of evil humours, England danced them out again.
Albion would raise a wearied head despite malaise.
The Emperor of Albion, King EADWIG, drew the charters
Which avoided civil war, despite support of adverse factions.
He granted tracts of land to Thanes of Wessex: misplaced barters
For a larger stretch of England's sadly sundered fractions.
The kingdom split betimes between two kings - no selfless martyrs
They. For this ensued from Eadwig and his brother's actions:
Albion was rent, - for only one king is content.
Unity - though doubts unite and certainties divide -
Brought spiritual fulfilment for the Church and for the Priest:
Eadwig's brother EADGAR sat upon the stone, to guide
His re-formed lands with upward glances fixed towards the East.
Two and twenty abbeys grew at this turning of the tide,
The dream of cross or rood was chanted to assuage the Beast:
Albion, in raising, would see Christ's light cry its blazing.
The gentle prayer is answered often by the quaking earth:
The year before King Eadgar's death, the Earth's tectonic shifts
Betokened martyrdom and argument, to question worth.
Eadgar's son, the second EADWARD, won succession's rifts,
Although his words and actions leapt from flaming, violent birth -
Even such a soul as this, Martyrdom uplifts:
Albion will raze - though with payments and delays.
Danegeld would bring ending to this line of seven kings:
For AETHELRED, the last to take the crown upon the stone,
Kept the hordes at bay with sword and gold , but weakness brings
The failing of the light in Albion - the dove had flown.
Portentously he died Saint George's Day: bow unslings
And seven Danegeld payments swing their blades across his throne:
Albion was falling - though Saint George may heed the calling.
Copyright (C) 2004 David Lewiston Sharpe
31 August 2004
Loughton, Essex
reproduced with permission.
Other Works
Other composers who have written specially for the Kingston Chamber Orchestra include
Andy Meyers, Roger Davis, Ernest Burden, Robert Howard, MD Searby and many others.
Details of these works will be added soon.
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