Song cycle for Mezzo Soprano and Piano by David Bruce
Words by Glyn Maxwell
Co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Kelley O'Connor
Recording by Kelley O'Connor and Robert Spano

1. The Sunset Lawn

I was not why you came by
To the party on the sunset lawn
When I caught your eye
    You looked away
Then back again

I had never crossed your mind
You wondered who on earth I was
Was I your kind
    Did love demand
Some time of us?

I know nothing of that love
You know I'm nothing of the kind
By the stars above
     There's time enough
To meet me, friend




2. That Time With You

You wonder what I'm looking for
When the sky's blue
And the morning's long
And you ask what's wrong and there's nothing wrong
But it's half true -
    I was looking for that time with you

You wonder why our silences
They brew and stew
Where they used to grow
And you ask is there something and I say no
But that's not true -
    I'm looking for the time I'm spending
    Looking for that time with you

You wonder in some messages
What happened to
Some way we were
And you call me 'love' and I call me 'her'
And yes it's true -
    For she's looking for the time she's wasting
    Looking for the time she wasted
    Looking for that time with you

I wonder if you'll call or if I
Hope you do
I mean to say
For I do have such a busy day
You know that's true
For I'm looking for the time I'm losing
    Looking for the time I lost
    Looking for the time I've lost
    Looking for that time with you



3. Black Dress

Three coffees and an early start
Be still my navigating heart
I've a black dress and a GPS
And I have a date to enter

I have a pretzel and a hunch
I have a number I can crunch
A black dress and a GPS
And I set out from the center

And in the center there I stay
Though I ride a century and a day
In a black dress with a GPS
While the highway rolls below me

I have a cell-phone and a song
I never put a toenail wrong
I've a black dress and a GPS
And you'll know me when you know me



4. Bring Me Again

Where we met, bring me again
Where I met you and you met me
To the hour before the moment when
Bring me again

What you knew, tell me again
What you lived and loved and longed for
What were these when I was none of them
Tell me again

Where you're from, take me again
Where you dreamed and what you dreamed of
To the time before the time had come
Take me again

Now you're gone, meet me again
When you see a stranger waiting
By a stream when all has come and gone
Meet me again

That Time With You

The North Wind was a Woman. Dawn Upshaw, Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center

The North Wind was a Woman

Metropolis Ensemble, The Groanbox Boys (Michael Ward-Bergeman, Corentin Seznic, Paul Clifford)

Groanbox

Kaddisch from from Deux mélodies hébraiques by Maurice Ravel arranged by David Bruce

An extract from 'Night Parade' by David Bruce - a 13 minute 'orchestral showcase' depicting an exciting but also somewhat dangerous city night with "the kind of weird shadows that you see under neon light", together with echoing and overlapping brassy marches and driving rhythms

David Bruce - Night Parade (Extract)

The Consolation of Rain is a 20 minute work for oboe, cello, harp and percussion, performed here by Camerata Pacifica -  Nicholas Daniel, oboe; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Bridget Kibbey, harp; and Ji Hye Jung, percussion.

We all take consolation from different things, and without wanting to be overly morbid, I would like to think that after I die, my loved ones could take consolation from the sense that I was quite literally all around them, in the air, water and earth as part of the natural cycle of things. There are numerous poems on this theme, including the famous "Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep" by Mary Elizabeth Frye in which, rather than being dead, the deceased speaks directly to us: "I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. " Clearly I am not alone in my way of thinking there is something very moving about the idea that you can reconnect with someone you've lost simply by looking at nature.

Perhaps an inevitable topic for an Englishman, the focus in this piece is rain. Taking Debussy's method of portraying the sea in La Mer as something of a model, the piece is primarily an abstract musical construction, but one that constantly and variously evokes different aural images of rain, whether it be rippling, glistening, dripping, rumbling, swooshing or showering; gathering pace or subsiding; distantly echoing or vigorously present. But throughout, the impression is of rain not as dark and depressing, but as something positive, consoling, life-affirming and renewing - the 'gentle autumn rain' mentioned in the Frye poem.

I suspect - as is often the case in my work this focus emerged out of the instrumentation particularly the combination of harp and marimba which has a lot of potential 'water' in its sound. The focus on quietness in this piece may also relate to the fact that I knew I was writing for the wonderful oboist Nicholas Daniel. Just as I was beginning to write the piece I went to watch Nick perform, and one of the things that struck me in particular was his breathtakingly beautiful pianissimos. I've always felt that one of the tell-tale signs of a great performer is someone who knows how to use the very quietest tones their instruments can produce, to captivate a room and make everyone collectively hold their breath at the delicacy and fragility of the sound. These are often the moments when music really does offer a sense of transcendence.

Alongside Nick it has been a delight to know I'm writing for the fantastic players of Camerata Pacifica, and to know I can throw anything at them; and in particular to reconnect with Bridget Kibbey who has fearlessly tackled many of my fiendishly difficult harp parts in the past without batting an eye.

The Consolation of Rain is in five short movements, each in a way, a kind of 'song without words'. It lasts about 20 minutes in total. 


The  Consolation Of Rain by David Bruce

Kyoto Gewandhauschor, Makoto Nakura marimba
1. The Blackbird Tree
2. Rain
3. Fire
4. Loneliness

Songs in Wood

Orchestra fanfare written for San Diego Symphony. The title is Spanish for 'loud-mouth' or 'show off' and is thought by some to be the origin of the word fanfare. The thumbnail image shows the opening page of the score, framed and signed by members of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra as a gift to Maestro Ling. 

More info, including score and parts available at: http://www.davidbruce.net/works/fanfarron.asp

Commissioned by the San Diego Symphony Board of Directors
in honor of Jahja Ling with deep respect and appreciation for his legacy as Music Director of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra

Fanfarrón by David Bruce

The last four minutes of Prince Zal and the Simorgh 
Narrated by Sally Pomme Clayton
Text by Sally Pomme Clayton
Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and City University London

Prince Zal and the Simorgh - extract

Saudades by David Bruce - 2 Tangos for clarinet, accordion, violin, cello, bass. Performance by Chroma http://www.chromaensemble.co.uk Iford Festival, Bath, March 2010

Saudades by David Bruce

Avi Avital (mandolin) and the Dover Quartet perform David Bruce's Cymbeline for Mandolin and String Quartet

Cymbeline is a new work for Mandolin and String Quartet, written specially for mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital. The title is an old Celtic word meaning Lord of the Sun. I think the idea of the piece being about the sun emerged out of the colours of the string quartet and the mandolin together. Although I don't think of myself as a synaesthetic person I kept having a strong sense of the colour gold in the early sketches for the piece. The mandolin itself has always seemed to me to create a 'golden' sound, and when combined with the warmth of the strings it seems now obvious that I should drawn towards something warm and golden.

The sun was one of the first objects of worship and it has been surmised that the idea of a holy trinity (found not just in Christianity, but in numerous earlier religions) relates to the three distinct positions of the sun - sunrise (=father), noon (=son), and sunset (=spirit). Sunrise is 'the father of the day'; midday represents the fullness of energy, the son; and sunset is a time for contemplation and reflection - the spirit. To me, these three states represent not just "father, son and spirit" but also perhaps, the reflection upon an action about to happen (sunrise), the action itself (noon), and the reflection on the action that happened (sunset).

Cymbeline accordingly is in three movements, with two contemplative outer movements surrounding an energetic central movement. I see the piece as a contemplation of our relationship with this firey giver of life, whose significance to us is often overlooked in the modern world, but who still really does rule over us all.

1. Sunrise
2. Noon
3. Sunset

Cymbeline by David Bruce for Mandolin and String Quartet

Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1970, David Bruce grew up in England and now enjoys a growing reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. In the US, his third Carnegie Hall commission Steampunk (2011), follows Piosenki (2006), and Gumboots (2008) which have both gone on to be widely performed by leading ensembles around the world. His song-cycle The North Wind was a Woman was commissioned by the Lincoln Center for Dawn Upshaw for the gala opening of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center's 2009 season. In the UK, Bruce has a new chamber opera in development with the Opera Group and the Royal Opera House's ROH2, based on Philip Pullman's story The Firework Maker's Daughter. He was also recently selected as one of 20 leading composers chosen to represent the UK as part of the Cultural Olympiad 20x12 initiative.

Bruce's music draws inspiration from folk-traditions from around the world. He particularly enjoys collaborating with musicians who have strong connections with both classical and folk/world traditions, such as accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman, mandolinist Avi Avital and clarinettist David Orlowsky. In August 2011 Bruce will be collaborating with world-renowned violinist Daniel Hope, the David Orlowsky Trio and cellist Vincent Segal on a new co-commission inspired by Irish folk music from the Mecklenberg-Vorpommern festival, Germany and the Savannah Festival, USA. In 2012 he will be collaborating with Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Project on a new commission. Bruce also enjoys close working relationships with some of the finest musicians of the younger generation including Ensemble ACJW; harpist Bridget Kibbey; the grammy-nominated Metropolis Ensemble in New York; Chroma in the UK; and Art of Elan in San Diego (whose commission The Eye of Night was premiered in Jan 2011 and will shortly be recorded).

Bruce's work in opera has also attracted considerable attention. A series of short operas for Tete a Tete in London culminated in the Genesis Foundation commission Push! (2006) which was Critic's Choice for 2006 in both The Telegraph and Classical Music Magazine and received universal critical acclaim. In 2008, Dawn Upshaw instigated the commission for his one-act opera A Bird in Your Ear (2008) for Bard College, NY. After its successful premiere the opera has had performances by New York City Opera as part of the 2009 VOX festival; as a finalist in the National Opera Association's Chamber Opera competition 2008; and with students at NYU. The New York Times said the opera, "rich with imagined folk tunes, undulant accompaniment patterns and vibrant choral writing, is delicate, tartly tonal and lucidly orchestrated."

Bruce's music has attracted numerous awards and prizes, including the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize (2008) and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Competition (1994). He studied at Nottingham University, the Royal College of Music, London, (with Tim Salter and George Benjamin); and completed a PhD in Composition at King's College, London (1995-9), under the supervision of Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

Complementing his work as a composer, Bruce runs the music and technology company Red Balloon Technology Ltd whose sites include the popular sheet music site 8notes.com and the composers' site CompositionToday. 

davidbruce

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