York choir Soon Amore is proud to announce a UNIQUE ONLINE WORLD PREMIERE of a new piece, ‘Gently’, composed by David Lancaster. Our singers sent in individual recordings of the piece, which were then edited and produced by choir member Dave Pearce to create the final recording.
David Lancaster has this to say about the piece:
 
“Gently, my piece for choir, is actually an arrangement of a song I first composed for soprano and marimba in 2015.  I had thought for some time that I could develop it into a new composition for choir, so when Chris Bartram asked me for something for Soon Amore I immediately returned to this idea.
 
The words are by Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, a Persian polymath of the 13th century, better known today simply as Rumi; I think that they could apply to almost any loving relationship!
 
You drive me away gently
as a flute song does a dove
from the eaves.
And with the same song you call me back.
 
I am flattered, and very honoured, that Soon Amore have chosen this music as their ‘lockdown project’ but more than anything else am looking forward to a time when we can hear the choir singing live in concert once again.”

Gently David Lancaster Soon Amore

Grey Clouds

For her forthcoming concert on the 5th February, Jessica chats to Hayley Jenkins about the programme, her work with pianist Jelena Makarova on the Living Songs project and her work to support the charity Safe Passage.

Late Music Conversations: Jessica Summers January 2022

Hayley talks to Amy-Jayne Milton and Henrietta Hill from Trilogy Ensemble about their cforthcoming evening concert on 4th June.

Late Music Conversations: Trilogy Ensemble

Pianist Duncan Honeybourne talks to Hayley Jenkins about his forthcoming piano recital at Late Music in November which is part of a whole weekend of celebrations for composer David Power's 60th Birthday. Duncan talk about his longstanding working relationship with David, the album 'A Hundred Years of Piano Miniatures' and how the lunchtime concert on the 5th of November gives a snapshot into David's musical language as a composer.

Late Music Conversations: Duncan Honeybourne discussing David Powers 60th Birthday Concerts

Hayley Jenkins chats to Ruth Lee, composer, harpist, and singer about her lunchtime recital on Saturday 4th March. Ruth talks about her work as a musical storyteller, her interests in themes concerning mythology, and her blending of folk tradition with contemporary classical music. Ruth also tells us how some of the pieces for this concert require an electroacoustic setup with additional pedals, taking the pedal harp to new and interesting places.

In conversations: Ruth Lee harpist and composer

Silence Kills

Hayley Jenkins chats to composer David Power about his involvement in the curation of two concerts in the second half of our 2023/24 series. They talk about Satie's early works and how this has influenced the work of composers such as Eno, and David himself before discussing Walter de la Mare's Peacock Pie poems and David's interesting project to place new settings next to the earlier settings by Herbert Howells and Cecil Armstrong Gibbs.

If you like what you hear, then join us for the following concerts at the Unitarian Chapel, York:

On Friday 2nd February 1pm, David co-curated our lunch-time recital with pianist David Hammond which is a crossover of ambient and classical solo piano music centred on work by Erik Satie, Brian Eno, Federico Mompou and Howard Skempton, with new works by David Power and Derek O’Connell.

On Saturday 3rd February we have a lunchtime recital at 1 pm by violinist Steve Bingham, followed by an evening concert at 7.30 pm by baritone Robert Rice and pianist Will Vann who will present Walter de la Mare’s Peacock Pie, as works by Cecil Armstrong Gibbs and Herbert Howells are paired with all new settings.

Late Music In Conversation: David Power talks minimalism, song cycles and setting children's poetry

I recorded this in the early 1990's (James Saunders used his equipment), and it was on Chris Villar's website for a long time. I also got to perform it in London at a related book launch some years later.

A Very Short Trumpet Piece    

A Very Short Trumpet Piece by Morton Feldman

I composed 'Swan' early in 2011 for saxophone quartet, drawing extensively upon material I had previously employed in 'Suspense' for solo soprano sax but developing beyond the simple processes of the earlier piece. 

Swans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini.  The word swan is derived from Old English swan, akin to the German Schwan and Dutch zwaan and Swedish svan, in turn derived from Indo-European root  swen (to sound, to sing), whence Latin derives sonus (sound). 

The Black Swan Theory (or Theory of Black Swan Events) is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept that the event is a surprise (to the observer) and has a major impact. The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain firstly the disproportionate role of high-impact, hard to predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology, and secondly the non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities).

Leda and the Swan is a motif from Greek mythology in which Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan.  As the story goes, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped or seduced Leda on the same night she slept with her husband Tyndareus, King of Sparta.  Leda subsequently bore Helen (of Troy) and Polydeuces, who were children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of Tyndareus.

The silver swan, who living had no note,
When death approach'd, unlock'd her silent throat;
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore,
Thus sung her first and last, and sung no more.
Farewell, all joys; O Death, come close mine eyes;
More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.

“Jane was characteristically late, around ninety minutes if I remember correctly.  (Apparently it had taken longer than expected to collect the Alfa from the garage).  But then, quite suddenly, there she was: strikingly blonde, voluptuous, elegant and walking slowly towards me.  ‘Miss Swan?’ I tentatively enquired.  She giggled, twinkled her eyes and took my hand…”


Swan

CrAzY - Thomas J Crawley

David Lancaster is a composer based in York (UK).  Originally from Wigan, David studied music at the University of York, and was for three years RVW Composer in Residence at Charterhouse.  During that time he won several awards for composition and enjoyed a number of high profile performances.  Following a long period of silence he returned to composition in 2007 and his music has been subject to a dramatic simplification of style in a search for greater clarity of form and expression.  

In November 2013 his Strata was given its first performance by the Orchestra of Opera North; it was recorded for CD by the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (under Mikel Toms) in June 2015.
In 2014 David’s Vertigo string quartet was performed in Hong Kong and at the Aspen Festival, Colorado and his large-scale choral work Apocalypse - which tells the story of the end of the world as depicted in York’s medieval stained glass - was given its premiere by The 24 conducted by Robert Hollingworth during York’s Festival of Ideas.  (Earlier this year Apocalypse was revived by the Danish Radio Vocal Ensemble at three concerts in Copenhagen and was broadcast by Danish Radio).

In 2015 the quintet Strike was performed in Hong Kong and York and the saxophone quartet Swan was revived in London by the Lunar Sax Quartet.  Premieres included Batubulan for solo piano, Art of War for soprano, oboe and bass trombone, and Public Order for concert band and tape.

His violin solo Rough Cut has been published by UYMP and received its first London performance in February 2016 given by Peter Sheppard-Skaerved; in July Late Music will present the premiere of Breathless, composed for the Orichalcum Brass Quintet. 

In 2016 he completed PhD in Composition at the University of York with Roger Marsh.

Dr David Lancaster is Associate Professor of Composition at York St John University, and is Artistic Director of York's Late Music concert series.

www.davidcomposer.com

Swan

David Lancaster

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