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What Charlie Did Next : for ensemble

Commissioned by the Dutch ensemble ‘de ereprijs’ (14 instruments). Duration 10 minutes. First performance at Musis Sacrum, Arnhem, Holland, October 29th 2009. Published by Peters Edition, London.

In my 1995 piece for the ‘de ereprijs’ ensemble, _Waiting for Charlie_, I attempted to combine aspects of traditional Japanese music with the distinctive instrumental line up (including electric guitar and bass) of the ensemble. For this second commission I began with two principal aims. The first was to exploit, rather than evade, the jazz-like sound world of the ensemble, and the second was to build an episodic structure which would offer surprise through sudden shifts of pace and perspective.

During the two years preceding this composition, I had worked as a colleague alongside the distinguished jazz pianist John Taylor. He and I discussed harmony – his chief concern as a jazz composer – after I realized that despite the difference in idiom between his work and my own, some of the chords we employed – particularly large aggregates with elements of bitonality and ‘added’ notes – were remarkably similar, and that neither of us could accurately describe the chords, either in terms of content or function. In _Waiting for Charlie_, the opening material (which returns frequently) is entirely original and yet a conscious reference to Taylor’s music, despite using chords similar in structure to those that have characterized my instrumental music since the late 1980s. The opening chord, indeed, is exactly the same as the chord with which I ended _Waiting for Charlie_ in 1995. Other contrasting episodes in the piece, rather than taking this material into a less vernacular (avant garde) idiom, instead push the music towards more vulgar territory, ending with an ostinato based chatter involving the entire ensemble.