Written for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Memex (2014), for symphonic orchestra

Extracts from the world premiere of 'The Temptations of Christ' by Barnaby Martin performed in Holy Trinity, Sloane Square on 4 March 2017.

Preview/purchase score: https://www.barnabymartin.com/the-temptations-of-christ

This 45-minute cantata follows the temptations of Christ in the wilderness by the Devil. It takes words from Matthew 4: 1-11, John Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained as well as poems by Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), Sean O'Brien (1952-present) and Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967).

Performers featured in these extracts:

Illuminare choir 
Recital choir of St Paul’s Juniors, directed by Philip Berg

Christopher Stark | Conductor
Jeremy Cole | Organ
George Barton | Tubular bells
Laurence Williams | Jesus
Hiroshi Amako | Satan
Hilary Cronin | Soprano
Helen Charlston | Mezzo-soprano
Alexander Gebhard | Tenor
Michael Craddock | Baritone

The Temptations Of Christ

National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain, Phillip Scott , conductor. RCM Concert Hall, 2016

Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt? 
Stele I
Ozymandian fallacy
Stele II
Timor mortis conturbat me

In Ictu Oculi

2018
Commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival

Todd Levy, clarinet
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Margaret Dyer Harris, viola
Joseph Johnson, violoncello
Benjamin Hochman, piano

Recorded and engineered by Matthew Snyder, Allegro Recordings

02 Dance I

Composed 2016.

"Zones" is a single-movement piece that hurls an intrepid sax quartet through six mythomusical cosmic spaces without pause.

I. Wave Empyrean Zone
II. Warp Zones
III. Sylverald Zone
IV. Zone of Silence
V. Crystal Sky Zone
VI. Warped Warp Zones

Isaac Lopez, soprano sax
Royce Files, alto sax
Edgar Melendez, tenor sax
Robert Alexander, baritone sax

Zones Empyrean (for sax quartet)

Barnaby Martin is an award-winning composer of contemporary classical music based in England. His compositions have been performed widely in the UK and internationally by groups including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of Opera North, the Berkeley Ensemble, the Ligeti Quartet, the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, Wells Cathedral Choir and Illuminare choir. In 2018, his work for large orchestra, Quanta, was selected as the winner of the Toru Takemitsu Composition award. The piece, which was one of four to be selected by Unsuk Chin out of 143 entries from 40 countries, was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in the final of the competition in May 2018. Barnaby is the only composer from the UK to have received first prize in the history of the competition. Barnaby’s work has achieved acclaim and recognition in several other competitions and prizes including the DARE New Composer’s Forum Competition (Stillness), the Berkeley Ensemble’s New Cobbett Prize (Lazarus) as well as the New Music for St Paul’s Cathedral Competition (Videntes Stellam). Barnaby also received his first nomination for a BASCA British Composer Award in 2017 for his contemporary cantata, The Temptations of Christ.

Barnaby enjoys frequent collaborations with musicians and has been commissioned to write music for a variety of different ensembles and instrumentalists. He has written pieces for the Psappha Ensemble’s Benedict Holand as part of the group’s Composing for Violin scheme (Leda Atomica) as well as new pieces for oboist James Turnbull (Christ of Saint John of the Cross), the clarinettist John Slack (Hypercubus), the pianist Joseph Houston (Submerging) and organist Simon Johnson (O Herre Gott, dein göttlich Wort). The piece for Simon Johnson was commissioned by Choir & Organ Magazine and contributed to William Whitehead’s ongoing Orgelbüchlein Project. Barnaby has worked extensively with singers as well as instrumentalists and enjoys regular work with choirs in the UK. Most recently, he was commissioned by Illuminare choir to write a new 45-minute cantata for two choirs, soloists and percussion (The Temptations of Christ) which was premiered by the group in March 2017, directed by RPS award-winning conductor Christopher Stark.

Barnaby has studied composition with Kenneth Hesketh and from October 2018, he will begin working towards a PhD in composition at the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Michael Zev Gordon.

The Temptations Of Christ

Barnaby Martin

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