Output details

A Cold Spring : A work for large mixed ensemble of 10 instruments of approximately 10 minutes duration. Commissioned by Aldeburgh Music with funds from Sue Knussen Composers Fund and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group's sound investment scheme. First performed in 2009 Aldeburgh Festival with BCMG and Oliver Knussen. Further performances include Widmore Hall (BCMG Knussen) and performances with the Schoenberg Asko ensemble and SCO orchestra.

Originality: Written in 2009, this work demonstrates the culmination of a number of years spent refining and developing my harmonic language. Taking late Stravinsky’s methods as a point of departure, I have developed a technique which is as flexible and varied as it is consistent. I am very conscious of my relationship to 20th-century musical innovations, and absorbing and integrating techniques developed by other composers is an important part of my musical language. The rhythmic language was also of primary concern. The ensemble is often treated in distinct layers: in order to create separation each layer has a slightly different rhythmic identity, giving the impression of things moving at slightly different speeds.

Significance: The piece was very well received at its premiere in the Aldeburgh Festival in 2009 with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Oliver Knussen. It has gone on to be performed by the BCMG in Wigmore Hall, London and with the Asko Ensemble in Amsterdam and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Rigour: A Cold Spring derives almost all of its musical substance from the opening chord, outlined in the two clarinets and reiterated throughout the ensemble. Not only does this form the harmonic backbone for the work, it also provides the implied harmony and shapes for melody. Much of the work is very linear and the harmony is often expressed in heterophonic lines and or an overlay of polyrhythmic figuration.