‘The Solar System does not play well-tempered’ was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music for the ‘200 Pieces’ celebration of the institution’s bicentenary. It was premiered by Leo Kerr on 30th Nov 2021 in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall. 

The slightly whimsical title comes from a talk given by Dr Nicole Pawellek at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, in which she looked at historical theories of ‘music of the spheres’ (the title of her talk) through the lens of modern astronomy and astrophysics. There was one particular slide that leapt out at me showing how, amazingly, densities in the asteroid belt appear to exactly match the ratios of partials in the harmonic series! This became the starting point for my piece: on one side portraying the dramatic contrasts between the cold depths of space and violent encounters with asteroids, and on the other side, using the harmonics shared between a musical instrument in one’s hand and the asteroid belt as a source of harmonic and structural inspiration!

The Solar System does not play well-tempered (MP3)

Strange Attractors was commissioned by the Ossian Ensemble and first performed on 24 November 2009 as part of their Leverhulme Fellowship concert series at the Royal College of Music.  The title Strange Attractors refers to the beautiful and enigmatic images developed by Edward Lorenz to show how a chaotic system, impossible to predict, is built on extraordinarily complex and yet logical and stable patterns and rules.

Strange Attractors (chamber ensemble)

This brief show-piece for treble recorder is the third in a series of solo recorder works I have composed for my wife, Emily Bloom – the others being an extensive piece for tenor recorder and another for treble recorder with live electronics. The title Rundown is meant to express the idea that this frenetically virtuosic piece actually runs down the soloist and defeats them in a matter of minutes. I used a system of note values attached to intervals between pitches so that faster note values result in wider interval shifts and an increasing sense of wildness. By the end of the piece this forces the soloist to traverse the entire range of the instrument in no more than one beat. The only moments of peace come from very brief interludes where the soloist plays lyrical passages in microtones accompanied by their own voice.


Rundown (solo treble recorder 2008)

Live performance by the Borealis Quartet

Borexino-Borealis is inspired by the extraordinary Borexino Physics Experiment located 1.5km underground deep within the Gran Sasso Mountain in Italy.  The purpose of this experiment is to detect the most elusive and mysterious subatomic particle emanating from the core of the sun, the neutrino.  On the extremely rare occasion that a neutrino collides with a particle inside the detector (most pass straight through the Earth without even slowing!), a flash of blue light, called Cherenkov Radiation, occurs.  This piece explores the nature of these enigmatic particles and magnifies these extremely rare moments of interaction between our world and theirs.  For the second half of the title I wanted to pay tribute to the Borealis Saxophone Quartet for their invaluable guidance to me throughout the writing of this piece.
Borexino-Borealis was commissioned by the Park Lane Group and premiered on 6th January 2015 at the Purcell Room in London.

Borexino-Borealis (live recording)

Excerpts of my chamber symphony 'Dr. Glaser's Experiment' performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by François-Xavier Roth in the world premiere at LSO St. Luke's on 13th March 2016.

Dr Glaser's Experiment (excerpts from LSO premiere)

Lesson 1: General Relativity
Lesson 2: Quantum Mechanics (3:45)
Lesson 3: A Brief History of the Universe (6:36)
Lesson 4: The Standard Model (8:35)
Lesson 5: Theory of Everything (10:52)
This is a live recording from the BBC Radio3 Hear and Now broadcast of the premiere by the Piatti Quartet at the 2017 Cheltenham Festival.
To view the full score and a note on the science behind each movement which is the result of a collaboration with physicist Joe Davighi, visit: https://issuu.com/darrenbloom/docs/five_brief_lessons_full_score

Five Brief Lessons on Physics for String Quartet

A little piano piece evoking two very different places that exist simultaneously but only occasionally touch. It also serves as an etude for working on the independence of the hands.
Performed by Neil Georgeson

Darren's pieces

Two Lands

This short work for solo cello was written in memory of Kaleigh Lau, a close friend of my daughter's who passed away from a DIPG brain tumour in June 2018. This recording was played at her funeral and I'm now releasing it to mark what would have been her 9th birthday.

Kaleigh loved butterflies - and so I imagined Kaleigh as one, fluttering and dancing, with the rich lower register music representing the loving embrace of her family upon whom she occasionally comes to rest.

This recording was made by my dear friend David Lale on the morning I completed the piece.

Butterfly

An excerpt from the opening section from New Eyes, inspired by black holes and gravitational physics. This section depicts the violent journey into a black hole and reveals an imagined world beyond the event horizon.
Recorded in workshop by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Seal

New Eyes (Excerpt)

Darren Bloom is a composer, conductor, producer and educator. Described in The Times as ‘almost mystical… a genuine frisson’, Darren’s music is noted for its combination of ‘evocative harmony’ and ‘raw power’. His recent chamber symphony Dr. Glaser’s Experiment, commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra for their 2016 Futures Festival, was praised in theartsdesk.com as a ‘confident answer to the question: How can an orchestra perform the music of the future?’ Darren’s chamber work Strange Attractors was selected by the UK panel of the International Society for Contemporary Music to represent the UK, and his chamber opera KETTLEHEAD was created as part of his second year of residence with the London Symphony Orchestra as a member of the LSO Soundhub Scheme. Recent projects include a curated set for New Dots’ Curiouser event, which incorporated his new work Alice’s Dream Fragments for the Octandre Ensemble, and Borexino-Borealis, a commission from the Park Lane Group for the Borealis Saxophone Quartet.
 
Darren is a founding member and conductor/creative producer of the Ossian Ensemble with whom he has given the premieres of dozens of new works over the past decade. Other conducting highlights include a performance of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Five Klee Pictures in the presence of the composer, recording music for BBC4 documentaries, directing several youth new music ensembles, including the Composers Ensemble at Junior Trinity, and making his third annual appearance as a conductor for the LSO Soundhub Scheme.
 
Darren studied composition with Edwin Roxburgh, Brian Elias and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and conducting with Neil Thompson, Edwin Roxburgh and Christopher Austin. He was awarded a DipRAM and the Manson Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Music as well as recently being appointed an Associate of the RAM. In 2015 he commenced an AHRC funded PhD in Composition at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Richard Causton.

Darren Bloom

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