CHROMA

Chroma

Sarah O'Flynn - flute
Emma Feilding - oboe
Stuart King - clarinet
Helen Cole - harp
Martin Cousin - piano
Marcus Barcham-Stevens - violin
Emily Davis - violin
Reiad Chibah - viola
Clare O'Connell - 'cello

Introduction, Biographies, Track details, Audio files, Reviews

1.    EMPTY FATHOMS - Alastair Stout (4.24)

2-5. REFLECTIONS - Elizabeth Maconchy
       i. Poco lento (4.50)
       ii. Allegro molto (1.36)
       iii. Lento (2.44)
       iv. Con allegrezza (3.07)

6-7. DOUBLE IMAGE - Diana Burrell
       i.   (5.01)
       ii.  (6.31)

8.   SYRINX - Claude Debussy (2.35)
9.   SONATA AFTER SYRINX - Richard Rodney Bennett (14.46)

10.  UNDERTOW - Tansy Davies (6.31)

11.  A SEA-CHANGE - Anthony Payne (13.18)

Further Information

EMPTY FATHOMS (1998)

Empty Fathoms takes its inspiration from a passage of the poem Orfeo: A Masque by George Mackay Brown:

'The uncoiled line, baited, wandering deep. Orfeo and the fiddle and empty fathoms, Play a reel, man' (From the book Northern Lights published by John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.)

I was interested in creating a work which followed a fishing line uncoiling through the cross section of an ocean - journeying from the unstable surface waters down to the sea bed. On its passage down, the line passes through different layers of sediment, converging tides, and entangles strange sea creatures until it finally reaches the sea bed and nestles amongst the rippling weeds... (AS)

Alastair Stout (b.1975) grew up in Shetland. He studied at the Royal College of Music with Joseph Horovitz, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Robert Saxton and is currently studying for a PhD in composition at Royal Holloway, University of London with Simon Holt.

REFLECTIONS (1960)

The title is purposely ambiguous intending to suggest several possible meanings. There are four short contrasting movements which all reflect in various ways on the opening of the work. The ideas derive thematically from this opening material and they spring to a great extent from the individual character of the four instruments. (EM)

Reflections was composed in 1960 to a commission from the BBC and was first performed by the Melos Ensemble at a BBC Invitation Concert in April 1961. It is published by Chester Music.

Dame Elizabeth Maconchy was born in 1907. Raised in Ireland, she studied at the Royal College of Music in London and later in Prague. Combining a rich composing career with raising a family, she is particularly known for her highly acclaimed series of pieces for string quartet. She died in 1994.

DOUBLE IMAGE (1999)

Double Image is a work of contrasts - bright melodies followed by dark, blurred sections, serene, unmoving harmonies matched with aggression. It is in two movements, and whilst each one is 'of itself', there is at the same time, a revisiting in the second of many of the ideas in the first. Thus the clipped rhythms from the energetic opening of the work are found again in a quite different context at the static opening to the second movement, and the turbulent piano semiquavers near the beginning appear much later - coloured differently in the lower reaches of the instrument where the piano's strings have been 'prepared'. (DB)

Double Image was commissioned by Rainbow Over Bath with funds from South West Arts and was written for the ensemble Double Image. It is published by United Music Publishers Ltd.

Diana Burrell was born in Norwich in 1948. She studied at Cambridge University and now lives in East London. After spending several years teaching, she became a free-lance viola player. Over a period of time she began to concentrate her energies on writing music. Her music is strong and visceral, often radiantly glistening, but can just as easily inhabit more shadowy, sinister realms.

SYRINX (1912)

This miniature for solo flute is based on the legend of Pan and the water-nymph Syrinx. Syrinx rejects Pan's love and, fleeing from him, hides in the river rushes. Pan cuts and binds some rushes to make a set of pipes upon which he expresses his grief at losing his love.

Claude Debussy was born in France in 1862 and died in 1918. His music was a seminal factor in opening up a new sound world for the 20th Century.

SONATA AFTER SYRINX (1985)

Five recent works of mine have been based on Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute, and this is the third of the group. Debussy used the combination of flute, viola and harp in one of his late sonatas, and I have always wanted to write a work for these instruments.

My Sonata is in seven sections: Molto moderato, Presto (Scherzo 1), alla habanera, Cadenza (for viola and harp), Vivo (Scherzo 2), Poco adagio (solo harp), adagio. (RRB)

The Sonata was written for the Nash Ensemble, for their concert to mark the composer's 50th birthday, given at Wigmore Hall, London, in May 1986. It was composed during August 1985 in New York City, and is dedicated to Amelia Freedman. It is published by Novello and Company.

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett was born in Broadstairs, Kent in 1936. Known also as a film composer and jazz pianist, his concert works are frequently performed around the world. He studied composition in London at the Royal Academy of Music and with Pierre Boulez in Paris. Knighted in 1998, he now lives in New York.

UNDERTOW (1999)

This piece is built around a two-part line that undergoes various liquid transformations. The material, seemingly propelled by its own momentum, is forced to accelerate, reverse and become suspended, meanwhile revisiting certain points of high energy, which cause stark shifts into other directions. (TD)

Undertow is a work promoted and distributed in the British Music Information Centre's "New Voices" scheme.

Tansy Davies (b.1973) studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, gaining a distinction for her M.Mus. Many distinguished artists and ensembles, including the Duke Quartet, the Brunel Ensemble, the Composer's Ensemble, Sharp Edge, the London Sinfonietta and Simon Blendis have performed Tansy's works and she has been awarded prizes in several competitions.

A SEA CHANGE (1988)

In recent years the tyranny of deadlines and a certain personal inclination have led me to avoid the use of pre-formulated systems for governing pitch, rhythm and structure. Time has just been too short, and the element of improvisation has come to the fore in the creative process.   I have even begun pieces without knowing their ultimate destinations. A Sea-Change, for instance, was originally called Serenade, but I began to realise I was not writing the piece I thought I was. It was more like a little process of nature, whereby things grow and change without our noticing. Hence the title I eventually chose.

Two main elements, the opening pizzicato figures and the sensuous harmonies that follow, grow and splinter as the work progresses. Subsequently, a wave-like texture accompanies capricious woodwind ideas, but returns later to underpin an entirely new melody - the same, yet different. After a pulsating chordal dance the piece ends as it began. (AP)

A Sea-Change is published by Chester Music.

Anthony Payne was born in London in 1936. He began to compose while still at school and became aware of a developing personal style influenced by early twentieth century English composers and others such as Sibelius and Tippett. He read music at Durham University, and at the same time felt the need to expand and rethink his musical language. Predictably this resulted in a period of creative uncertainty, and after graduating he pursued a career as freelance musicologist, journalist and lecturer. In the mid-1960s, however, he began to discover a personal language. In 1973 he took the decision to devote himself almost entirely to composition.