Premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo. Velocity was commissioned to open the BBC Last Night of the Proms 2014

Velocity

honestly i'm just happy i could be here

how we rotate is a suite of four songs for recorder trio. The songs explore the quirks of new relationships between people: shuffling self-consciously from one leg to another as two people are introduced; mechanistic obsession with making a good first impression (but seeming uptight and forced in the process); hiding fragility through a facade of anti-sentimentality.

The musical material is simple at heart and is repeated many times, weaving around itself, often in a cyclical or circular way.

i. rocking song (one)
ii. i’m not very good at dancing
iii. and i promise i’m not sentimental
iv. rocking song (two)

Recorders: Tabea Debus, Charlotte Barbour-Condini, Olwen Foulkes
Artwork: Eitil Thorén Due (a.k.a. Peytil)

how we rotate

and i promise i'm not sentimental

for Chamber Orchestra.

In the Irish language, 'sí', from the old irish 'síd', is a fairy mound.
This work is dedicated to the memory of Peter Keely.

Played by the Manson Ensemble - conducted by Christopher Austin.

I wanted to explore the power of noise, both as an oppressive tool, and as a site of sonic resistance // I wanted to explore voices (specifically in a piece written for instrumentalists) / how voices are silenced / how silence can be powerful and defiant // I wanted to be angry // I wanted to pay tribute to one of the main influences in my life without stealing her voice to be used in some vague political statement // I wanted people to be confused // I wanted to explore how the song black is the colour of my true love’s hair has been used by different people throughout history to resist and to articulate identity // I wanted to explore how sound can overwhelm and suffocate // I wanted the performers to be challenged and empowered // I wanted to see how different voices transform the same idea // I wanted to find intimacy in a fucked up world // I wanted people to listen to Nina //


*		*	     *        are you ready to burn buildings was premiered in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge,  on 01.03.19, conducted by Tom Edney.

are you ready to burn buildings

Half Black, Half Blue, written for violist Hannah Gardiner, is a study in struggle. Exploring several key musical materials, its soundworld is at once diffuse and concentrated, flowing and halting.

Half Black, Half Blue

…for string quartet + sampler. Score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOGWvw02dv4

Performed by the Ligeti Quartet in Cambridge, 7/6/19

CLICKBAIT is about the internet. It’s about information overload (i.e. too many things happening too quickly) and the effects of digital media on the ways we think. It’s about attention span, the feeling of constantly shifting your gaze from one object to another in an environment of rapid disorientation, and the delicate, fleeting moments of calm introspection that exist in the liminal spaces. It’s about whether four musicians are able, despite continually being distracted, to focus on one thing.

artwork: barbara lee #8 by ryder ripps

CLICKBAIT

Photo : Robert Taylor 
http://taylor-photo.co.uk/

Afterthoughts for Schubert D571

Xiǎo Hé Tǎng Shuǐ [The Flowing River]: for Sheng, Erhu & Orchestra
Performed by: Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra
Erhu: Ye Chunhong; Sheng: Tang Ruofan

The Chinese folksong 小河淌水 [pinyin: Xiǎo hé tǎng shuǐ English translation: flowing river/stream], rooted strongly in Yunnan culture, is a fine example of how one can express complex meanings of a written text through music. This became the grounding method upon which this composition of the same name,  The Flowing River, was constructed.
The legend of this folksong takes place near an unknown stream of water in the mountains near the Ancient Tea Horse Road. A beautiful maiden from a nearby village falls deeply in love with a travelling horseman. The night before he leaves for battle, they get engaged beside the river. Every night the maiden sings the song of the flowing river, in hopes for her words to be carried to her far away love. When the horseman return, the general tells the maiden that her love has had a change of heart and cannot face her, but instead offers a jade necklace to her as a token of guilt. The maiden refuses to remarry and continues to sing; hoping that her love will come back home. Yet, unbeknownst to her, the general did not have the strength to tell the maiden that her fiancée had died in the mountains and the necklace was meant as a gift to ask her hand in marriage.
This poignant and emotionally complex tale contains not only touching emotions, but an intriguing structure. In parallel to this, the composition follows a similar musical form, with the foreground material often being masked by a musical depiction of the flowing stream. The stream is the main focus of the textural element in this composition, with the programme depiction taking place in the background. The piece opens with a slow, colouristic depiction of the water, evoking a mystical, wonderous mood. This eventually transforms into more gushing textures and flowing melodies, with the emergence of our two lovers: the Maiden (musically represented by the Erhu) and the horseman (the Sheng). This becomes morphed into a rhythmically focused section, depicting both characters’ joy of being in love, swelling to a climactic point of full euphoria. Suddenly, this is all halted when a distant Trumpet sound the call to battle, bidding the horseman farewell.
The piece’s mood turns cold and dark, and closes with the full folksong melody finally stated as a whole, placed in a sombre but still hopeful atmosphere. As the maiden continues to sing for her long-lost husband-to-be, 小河淌水 / 《 Xiǎo hé tǎng shuǐ 》 / The Flowing River slowly fades to completion.

Score available here: https://bdpmusic.co.uk/product/asman-the-flowing-river/

The Flowing River

Xiǎo Hé Tǎng Shuǐ [The Flowing River]

Richard Baker ‘Crank’

Fall, fall stories from everywhere
And I will catch those falling words

BEN SEE - Scribble Book

composer of music
Contact: davidnunnmusic@gmail.com

and i promise i'm not sentimental

David Nunn

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