A large ensemble work, from 2010.

Trawling through night.
Awake.
Sitting and waiting.

Nightfishing

Commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as part of their 21/22 Season. Premiered by Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Sir James MacMillan on 11th November 2021 at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. This excerpt was recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and performed live by Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by SCO Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Manze on 1st November 2024 as part of the Nordic Music Days Festival 2024 at City Halls, Glasgow.

Death in a Nutshell is inspired by Frances Glessner Lee’s “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death” which are a series of 20 re-creations of real-life crime scenes that she intricately fashioned in minute detail within dollhouse-sized rooms. These macabre miniature death-scenes were painstakingly handcrafted by Lee throughout the 1940/50s as a learning tool in forensic and crime scene investigation, and often depict a domestic scenario furnished in 1940s décor in which the body of a doll (or dolls) can be found. Each diorama presents a set of clues regarding the events that led up to the doll’s demise including witness statements and important details about the time of year and even the temperature of the room; all of which offer clues to the solution of a puzzle that can be solved from the objects found within each room. These studies have proved so successful that they are still used today and are housed at the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Officer in Baltimore, where the true solutions are kept firmly under lock and key.

This piece focuses on 6 of Lee’s grisly Nutshell Studies in an attempt to represent 6 different crime-scenes as musical miniatures that hint at a variety of elaborate clues and evidence which form their potential solutions. The work is constructed like a house in which we promenade from room to room, starting in the parlour and wandering all the way to the attic, where we find a deceased doll (or dolls) in each room as well a new mystery to be solved. This morbid tour unfolds as follows:

1. Malleus Dei (in the Parsonage Parlour)

2. The Colossus (in the Kitchen)

3. A Drowned Sorrow (in the Dark Bathroom)

4. Interlude pour l’esprit de l’escalier (on the Stairs)

5. The Family Plot (in the Three-Room Dwelling)

6. Hanging upon your every word (in the Attic)

Leave no stone unturned, no note unscrutinised, “convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell”, in this macabre collection of miniature pieces inspired by a dollhouse unlike any other.

Death in a Nutshell for Chamber Orchestra (Excerpt) - 1.Malleus Dei (in the Parsonage Parlour)

The Glasgow School of Art Choir commissioned Scottish composer, Jay Capperauld, in 2017, to compose his first ever work for chorus. The resulting piece, 'The Unspoken', takes its lyrics from a poem of the same name by Scotland's first Makar, Edwin Morgan.

The composer writes: "Morgan’s poem reflects upon a number of distinct memories from his life that are characterised by high levels of emotional significance and intimacy, which culminate in the final stanza of the poem which acts as the main conceptual catalyst for this choral work

This piece is essentially a love song for everyone in that, although Morgan’s poem refers to his gay relationships, the text does not hint at any gendered characters, which provides an inclusive and all-encompassing definition of love. 

When asked in an interview with Marshall Walker about the significance of Morgan’s sexuality with regards to how his readers’ should interpret his work, Morgan replied: "I think it’s left to them to read the works as they wish. If they’re interested in the fact itself, then perhaps they could read it in a slightly different way. If they’re not they can go on reading it as they read it before". 

The fact the characters in the poem are genderless exemplifies Morgan’s attempt to highlight the diversity and universality of love. This all-encompassing concept becomes most poignant in the poem’s intimate final stanza, which provides the text and focus of this choral work’s narrative. 

Although some phrases and words from the preceding stanzas are interspersed throughout the piece as the narrative progresses, the final stanza conveys Morgan's attempts to find the right words, as it were. The piece culminates in a wordless expression of joyous emotion which, for me, conveys my interpretation of Morgan's message, which is that the most vital aspects of love are inexpressible through words alone if they are, indeed, expressible at all."

'The Unspoken' - Jay Capperauld and Edwin Morgan

Psappha Ensemble - http://psappha.com - Benjamin Powell (piano) and Tim Williams (percussion)
!Please use headphone for the best audio quality! 

Erratics takes its inspiration from the masses of colossal rocking stones that can be found in various locations throughout the world, which are balanced in such a precarious way that they can be rocked back and forth by the application of force by a single person. These monolithic stones often look very out of place in their surroundings – such as those stones that can be found in the middle of a forest or on top of a hill – and are known as “Glacial Erratics” which, in geological terms, refers to the fact that they are thought to have been transported to their unusual locations by glaciers, which is also reflected in the original Latin word “errare”, which means “to wander”. 

This piece attempts to portray an abstract image of a vast rocking stone being pushed in various directions by two quasi-antagonistic characters, in the form of the Pianist and Percussionist, who instigate movement in the stone and agitate the musical material between them in order to influence the motion of this huge object. In this way, Erratics takes on a double-meaning in its title by acting in a capricious and unpredictable or “erratic” manner, which conveys the abnormal movements of these massive rocking stones.

Learn more about Jay: http://www.jaycapperauld.com

Psappha’s ‘Composing for…’ programme is supported by: Arts Council England; Garfield Weston Foundation; Idlewild Trust; PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner scheme; Radcliffe Trust; and RVW Trust.

Jay Capperauld (born 1989) - Erratics

Website : www.jaycapperauld.com

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JayCapperauld

Subscribe on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/JayCapperauld

Scotland-based saxophonist and composer Jay Capperauld graduated with distinction from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland after studying Saxophone under the tutelage of Josef Pacewicz. As a saxophonist, Jay has worked with some of the major Scottish Orchestras including; the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ballet, Scottish Opera and the Scottish Festival Orchestra and has also performed with the Scotland-based Saxophone Quartet, Sax-Ecosse. 
As a composer, Jay has had many successful performances of his works within Scotland; writing for various Instrumentalists and Ensembles including; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, 
Red Note Ensemble, Live Music Now’s Flercussion, MusicLab, Ensemble Thing, Said Ensemble and has also worked with members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.  Jay has worked alongside BBCSSO conductor, Ilan Volkov, in "Hypnic Impact," for solo Soprano Saxophone and Wind Orchestra, which featured Jay himself as the soloist. 
More recently however, Jay achieved success by winning 1st prize in the Dinah Wolfe Memorial Prize 2013 with his work for solo Piano, Christus Tantasticus, which premiered earlier in 2013 with internationally renowned pianist, Sinae Lee, as the performer. 
And, Jay has also recently collaborated on a Ballet with Choreographer, Hubert Essakow, which celebrated the centennial anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.” The Ballet premiered at the Tramway (Glasgow) in May of 2013 with dancers from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and instrumentalists from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre-André Valade. 
Jay is in his final year of studies in the Masters of Composition course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Gordon McPherson.

Reviews for Jay Capperauld - http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/classical-review-plug-the-return-of-volkov-royal-conservatoire-of-scotland-1-2259369

http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/music/musiclab-and-glasgow-liederbuch-rsamd-glasgow.13559120

Death in a Nutshell for Chamber Orchestra (Excerpt) - 1.Malleus Dei (in the Parsonage Parlour)

Jay Capperauld

Recent comments

dascott

PSYCHOTIC SON

Related tracks