Output details

Uneasy Vespers (Part II)

A large-scale choral and orchestral work, duration 55 minutes

Uneasy Vespers (Part II) was first published and first performed in October, 2008 by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir with I Fagiolini, conducted by Clark Rundell. Uneasy Vespers (Part II) was commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society with funds provided by the Liverpool Culture Company for Liverpool’s year as the European Capital City of Culture, 2008. Performed in October, 2008,it is the second (and final part) of a larger work. Uneasy Vespers contrasts the reception of scientific discoveries in two different eras. Part I is concerned with the stages by which the sun became identified as the centre of the solar system, and the difficulties that the Church had in reconciling this with

established dogma. Part II offers a different perspective, and concentrates on the development and deployment of the atomic bomb in the C20th. This science was allowed to be developed unchecked by either the Church or society as a whole. Like Part I, Uneasy Vespers (Part II) is sung by a large (amateur) chorus, a professional semi-chorus from which a mezzo soprano takes the role of the Japanese actress Midori Naka in the fifth movement. The initial research behind was to construct an appropriate libretto (in collaboration with writer Matt Simpson), and then to develop a musical language that was not only appropriate to the work but also realistic in terms of the ability of the RLP Choir and the available rehearsal time. The solution adopted for the choral parts was to ensure that in themselves they were relatively straightforward harmonically and melodically, leaving the more dissonant elements to the accompanying orchestra (eg.p.30,31), and, on occasion, the semi-chorus (eg.p.22). Additionally, the work uses forms of ‘layering’ in which the juxtaposition of two simpler lines creates a more complex whole (eg.mvt. III). To highlight the parallels between Parts I and II, I chose to use a similar structure for each, and used cross-reference between them through textual, harmonic and other forms of quotation.