Silver is an attempt to write simple, melodic songs that are direct and emotive, but stripped of any unnecessary embellishments or ornaments. The three songs are all poems from Walter De La Mare (1873-1956), one of my favourite poets as a composer and are a return to his work for me after setting it earlier with Two De La Mare Songs (2012) and The Song of Shadows (2016). All three songs relate to moonlight, and all include the word ‘silver’ that gives the set its title.

Bennachie is a suite for piano taking inspiration from the eponymous hill that is so prominent in the relatively flat, fertile lands of east Aberdeenshire. The hill is prominent, not just in topographical terms, but also that it has such a rich and established cultural and historical legacy that embraces myth, legend and real, visceral events that have shaped the land and the people that live in its lee. Bennachie was commissioned by the Bailies of Bennachie (a charity that not only seeks to preserve the natural environs of the hill, but also to encourage interest in its cultural and historical past) for their 50th anniversary to engender further interest in the hill and to contribute to the existing artistic legacy associated with it.

PAC

The Impromptus are simple pieces designed as breaks from larger compositional projects for the piano. They are an ongoing set, working with simple melodic ideas in different guises. Additionally, all three pieces explore in a rudimentary fashion the relationship between differnt pitches - in Three Sad Dances it is G and G# in Three Wistful Tunes it is C and F.

PAC

The Theme and Transfigurations is the final piece in my project of ‘transfigurations’ for the piano which have occupied me creatively for the majority of 2021-22. Whereas previous works have sought to transfigure folksongs, national anthems, popular songs and opera arias (amongst other things), this piece takes a short piece of my own from 2013 and transfigures different motifs, patterns, melodies and themes over five short movements.

PAC

National Anthems carries on my current preoccupation with the transfiguration of material from one state of being to something different, perhaps more spiritual and beautiful than the original. These four pieces are perhaps the most strict and direct of the transfigurations that I have undertaken in the past year or two and are thus the most distilled examples of the technique.

The Songs of Morning and Night carry on my current preoccupation with the transfiguration of material from one state of being to something different, perhaps more spiritual and beautiful than the original. These short pieces transfigure snippets of existing, well-known pieces into something more reflective, resonant and timeless (though not without some humour and pithiness). The six transfigured pieces are split into three aubades (‘songs of the morning’) and three nocturnes (‘songs of the night’) and transfigure folksongs, popular songs, a lied and an opera aria.

Folksongs are simple ‘re-imaginings’ of well-known English folksongs that have long since left their natural surroundings to become cultural artefacts in their own right. Another word for the compositional process might be ‘deconstruction’ as each folksong is reduced to a handful of key features, such as a melodic fragment, a cadence or a rhythmic gesture and pieced together in a different fashion.

My setting of the Gloria was written during the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and what I imagined might initially be an introspective and melancholy work actually turned out to be one of my most ebullient and colourful pieces, spurred on by this unusual and percussive collection of instruments.

Twelfth Night is a simple setting of Laurie Lee’s much-loved poem of the same title in which the poet vividly depicts a winter scene to emphasise the coming of the Wise Men.

Noah’s Fire is my largest work to date, as well as the most ambitious and with the longest gestation. This work is envisaged as an oratorio in the ‘British Oratorio Tradition’, a tradition of large-scale, choral-orchestral works.

Secret Ceremonials is essentially a set of theme and variations, but rather than varying a given melody, here different textures, fragments and motifs are taken apart and put back together in a variety of different ways.