Hello Sunshine (Sarah Angliss)

Inspired by the woodland tarot cards, in particular 'The Blasted Oak' card, this piece was written on the NYOGB summer residency and performed by an incredible NYO alumni ensemble of strings and percussion in Snape Maltings, Birmingham Symphony Hall, and The Tate Britain in August 2015.

Expect molto creakiness and foreboding energy in the first section, evoking an image of an oak tree being struck down by lightning in the middle of the shaded wood. Snapping, rustling, and crunching sounds are all there to depict the enormous branches breaking and falling to the forest floor.
   The second section of the piece is much more reflective, it focuses on the woodland as a whole. The effect of the previous dramatic occurrence leaves the forest in a heart-wrenching state of recuperation. Sumptuous strings can be found here.

Thank you so much to the outstanding musicians who learned and performed this, to Jonathan Stockhammer for conducting it like a wizard, to Anna Meredith and Larry Goves for giving us the NYO experience of a lifetime, and to the other NYO composers for being fkin lame but also the coolest/most talented group of urchins with whom I've ever had the privilege of spending so much time, all the love.

The Blasted Oak

This was written at the NYOGB summer residential for an alumni ensemble of strings and percussion (including a steel pan!), and was conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer. This was recorded at the Britten studio, Snape Maltings, and also performed in Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Tate Britain.

It is based on two tarot cards, the Archer, and the Stag, and the piece follows a chase, with the archer pursuing the unfortunate stag, and shooting along the way. You will hear some pretty violent bartok pizzes for each arrow the archer fires. The moment of tranquil in the middle depicts a moment when the stag erroneously believes it has jumped to safety, and there is a bubble of calm, until the archer returns, and finally, in a flurry of arrows and panic, the piece ends. 

The Archer and the Stag

Recorded at International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 7th December 2020 by No Dice Collective.

Narrator - Georgia Affonso
Conductor - Joe Chesterman-March

Violin - Mabon Jones
Viola - Dominic Skingle
Cello - Anna Galloway

Programme Note:

The piece is was a joint commission between IABF and No Dice Collective, for their joint concert, 'The Things He Left Behind'. It is a response to a photograph of Anthony Burgess with his wife and their pet dog on a walk. Past the title, and a couple of musical gestures, I tried to avoid too literal a representation of the picture, and instead focused on the inner feelings of the boy in the story, who might or might not be Burgess. 

Compositionally, this piece can be seen as an elaboration of the spring-like gesture heard right at the start, where something contracts, increasing tension, and eventually releases. I have extended this gesture across sonic and visual gestures, and one important part of the
piece is the idea of movement and silence exacerbating tension in tandem. 

This idea is particularly found in the string bowing, which was inspired by an experience I had in France; a violin player sitting a couple of desks in front of me in a performance of Haydn's Creation insisted on making all sorts of over-the-top, overly- dramatic and quite unnecessary bowings. However annoying this may have been, it struck me how convincingly she conveyed 'a' drama of an otherwise run-of-the-mill piece.

I wanted to convey this essence by suggesting dramatic movements for the string players, meaning I have been more determinate than usual in my specification of bow movements. Whilst not all of the movements are for sonic gain, I think something must be said for the importance of increasing and maintaining tension through movement in silence. On this point, the metric modulations and silent bars are conducted to foreground the important element of silence in the piece.

Y'alright, pet - for String Trio and Narrator

Hanging on in there

*Photo* - Is my Great Nana Wilson - a great sense of humour - a Great Woman

Relaxation Tape I

This piece was composed, recorded and produced on one day as part of my first solo game jam. Songwriter's Block is a Breakout clone made for Ludum Dare 47, in under 72 hours. This track was written to accompany the different levels, with the composition looping within a section until the next level is reached and the piece progresses to the next section. As the game stands, only the first 8 bars are ever heard, as time limits reduced the game's scope.

Play Songwriter's Block here:
https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/songwriters-block

Songwriter's Block (LD47 game soundtrack)

tiny piece for the extra hour as the clocks went back -- 

(poem How to Get There by Frank O'Hara, with excerpts from the mermaid café at the Heong Gallery in Feb 2020)

ACTUAL OCTOBER AIR

Manchester based composer
visit my website for more

frazdotcom.com

RNCM and UoM Joint course 2017-2021
BPYAP young artist 2020
Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer-in-Residence 2017
Winner of Royal Philharmonic Society's Young composer award 2016
NYO composer 2014-2017

The Archer and the Stag

FIRELAND

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