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Ben Hartley Reflections, for solo cello and choir

_Ben Hartley Reflections_ is a 40-minute work for solo cello with amateur choir, first performed by Tamsy Kaner and the Ermington Singers (27.11.10), funded by Peninsula Arts as part of a major retrospective of the work of the painter Ben Hartley at the Peninsula Arts Gallery in Plymouth. The complete original work consists of four parts divided into short individual movements of highly virtuosic solo cello music. Two new versions have also been produced, a solo cello suite (20 mins) and a set of ‘Dances, Walks and Reveries’ for younger players called _Collected Legs_, performed at Birmingham Conservatoire by ten Junior Department cellists on 15.6.13.

Commissioned by Elaine Ackers, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG) cellist, the piece was written in collaboration with Ackers with several specific aims. She wanted solo repertoire suitable for post-Grade 8 players aged 13-18 years, whilst Bernard Samuels, the curator of the Hartley Collection, wanted to develop workshops in the gallery and in local schools, and include local participation in the performance. Johnson accordingly developed material suitable for workshops as well as formal and amateur performance where uncompromising new music is integrated in a patchwork structure including improvisation, rustic dances, folk-like melodies, and four settings of words from Hartley’s notebooks. Hartley’s paintings and notebooks have a vivid, child-like quality, and also reflect his Roman Catholic faith. The virtuosic cello material is accordingly derived from Hildegard of Bingen’s _Ave Generosa_, taking each pitch in sequence and presenting it, with decorations, as a continuous thread through the whole piece. The movements occur in a more or less cyclic pattern: virtuoso, improvisation, rustic dance/melody.

The first performance took place at Ermington, Hartley’s home for several years, with Kaner, a local choir and participation of the audience, alongside a series of workshops with local primary-school children.