Output details

Bow-wave

Concert work for symphony orchestra

Bow-wave was written for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and addresses issues of engagement and ownership in a large-scale composition. A working methodology was developed which allowed 80 young musicians to become part of the realisation and authorship of a work which was, nevertheless, defined technically and aesthetically by a single composer.

The work was developed with the NYO over a 10-day residency. It began with a pre-written ‘backbone’, a term coined by Wiegold for scores which are through-composed, containing the essential material of a work, yet leave much to be realised according to context and circumstance. This model is rooted in Wiegold’s study of musics such as the central baloungang in Gamelan music and the clave of South American music.

Wiegold’s creative methodology involves finding challenges to engage the musicians and as the realisation of Bow Wave evolved, new material developed both for instrumental sections and individual performers. For example, one of the cellists was a gifted accordion-player and eventually took a lead role, improvising in front of the orchestra. The NYO musicians also decided, midway through the process, that the piece should be played from memory and staged.

This decision demonstrated the musicians’ engagement with their realisation of the work and also enabled them to embody their engagement in a way almost unknown in orchestral performance practice. This shows the responsive nature of the methodology, creating performances unique to a particular situation. It is expected that the work will adopt a new set of idiosyncracies in a realisation planned for a Brazilian youth orchestra in 2014.

Bow Wave was the first work of its kind to be played by the NYO in their main concert series. They performed it on their 2009 winter tour in Birmingham, Manchester and the Roundhouse (London), directed by Wiegold.