Output details

Heartland : A concerto for percussion and orchestra. It was created in collaboration with the National Dance Company of Wales. The premiere performance was given by Julian Warburton and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Context: Heartland is a new work for solo percussion and orchestra commissioned by the BBC with financial assistance from the PRS Foundation for New Music. The work serves a dual function as a concert percussion concerto and as a ballet score. The piece was created in collaboration with National Dance Company of Wales' house choreographer Eleesha Drennan. The piece was premiered in its concert form at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival by BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Richard Baker with Julian Warburton as soloist. The work has toured the UK in over 20 performances of the dance version with National Dance Company Wales. Future performances include the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House and the Wales Millennium Centre main stage. The piece was broadcast on BBC Radio 3's flagship new music programme in July 2013.

Research objectives: Through composing this work I sought to: (1) make an extended exploration of large-scale structural compositional devices based on two interlocking cantus firmi; (2) construct complex rhythmic schemes expressed in simple notation; (3) explore new approaches to the transformation of musical material; (4) experiment with new areas of tonality; (5) explore extended playing techniques through a detailed cadenza for solo bass drum and a cadenza for tuned metal instruments; (6) investigate an important new percussion instrument called the aluphone. The aluphone is a recent addition to the percussion battery invented by Kai Stensgaard consisting of hand-moulded aluminium bowl gongs mounted in a chromatic keyboard layout.

Research significance: Heartland is an original piece of creative work in the field of practice-based composition research. The work is significant in that it represents a 21st-century addition to the percussion concerto repertoire and explores new areas of compositional technique and percussion technique.