'Timepieces: Three Auden Lyrics' is a setting of three poems by W.H. Auden for mixed choir and alto saxophone. It was commissioned by Sam Laughton and the Elysian Singers of London with the aid of a grant from the PRS for Music Foundation, and first performed by the Elysian Singers and saxophonist Kenji Fenton, conducted by Sam Laughton, on Tuesday 1 March 2011 at St Peter’s, Eaton Square, London. The three poems I have set are (1) Domesday Song (2) Our bias (3) Funeral Blues.


Timepieces for mixed choir and alto saxophone

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is an entertainment for children, for narrator, actor and symphony orchestra, and lasts about 18 minutes. The script, based on the popular folk tale, is by Dave Benson Phillips and Emma Mills. We're Going On A Bear Hunt was commissioned by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and first played by them on 18 October 2009; it has since been widely played around the UK and also in Ireland and Hong Kong.

We're Going On A Bear Hunt

Commissioned by Mardi Brass, for brass quintet, Ultramarine takes as its starting point the rich shade of dark blue that was highly valued in the early Renaissance, exploring the journey of this blue from its source to its final use. Recorded by Mardi Brass on their CD 'Something Blue'.

Something Blue - 1st Edit

Ultramarine

A celebratory orchestral fanfare written in 2003 for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to celebrate being chosen as European Capital of Culture 2008.

Untitled - 21-02-08

The World In One City

An octet (clarinet, bassoon, horn, string quartet, double bass) commissioned by the estate of the great clarinettist Thea King, and written in memory of her and her equally great clarinettist husband Jack Thurston. Four movements: Limerick, Lopsided, Jest, Balkan. First performed by Ensemble 10/10 conducted by Clark Rundell, The Cornerstone, Liverpool, 16 October 2013. Lasts about 20 minutes.

Untitled - 19-12-13

Thea Dances: 4. Balkan

Thea Dances: 3. Jest

Thea Dances: 2. Lopsided

Thea Dances: 1. Limerick

'The wailing wind brings stories long whispered, but seldom heard. The banshee's cry, a lost love, a tale to chill the blood. A teenage boy learns family secrets that forge links between the past and present.'

In A Wailing on the Wind, Liz Weir's words are intertwined with my music. The Mavron Quartet, who commissioned the piece, first came together with Liz and I in July 2012, spending a fascinating day being terrified out of our wits by Liz's excellently creepy ghost stories. Liz and I met again in January 2013 for a session in which she polished the script, and I worked out exactly how many seconds of music was needed for each section, what character it should have, whether it should be foreground or background, and so on. I wrote the bulk of the piece in February 2013.

The music itself works somewhat on a leitmotif basis - the technique developed in 19th-century opera where a particular musical theme relates to a particular character. Central to the whole piece is a three-note rising pattern which is first heard in the instrumental introduction, which in musical terms is B-C-G. The only direct quotation in the piece is a few notes from the 'Dies Irae' (Day of Wrath) plainchant from the Requiem Mass, which I couldn't resist incorporating at a moment of particularly ghoulish terror. The other tunes - whether it's what seems to be an Irish ballad or reel, or an American 1940s Big Band number - are my own work, though they draw unashamedly on the musical language of the times and places they are designed to evoke.

The first performance was on 23 April 2013 at St David's Hall in Cardiff.

A Wailing on the Wind and other stories

A Wailing on the Wind for storyteller and string quartet

Composer of concert music, which was recently described as "so beautiful, so complicated". It isn't really that complicated, but I'll take the beautiful.

Ian Stephens

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