Great piece. The range of textures and sense of motion almost hypnotic. Great musicianship!

Dutilleux was known to be kind and painstakingly patient, working on compositions for many years was of no concern to him. Trois Strophes is a piece beloved of many cellists, very virtuosic but full of light and dark and indecision and seeming in the beginning to come from nowhere, to have been there all along.

Henri Dutilleux - Trois Strophes Sur Le Nom de Sacher (1)

Composed for the RAM200 Bicentenary Celebrations.
Clarinet: James Gilbert

Ways things go - for solo clarinet

Johnna Wu, violin
Issei Herr, cello
Simon Kanzler, electronics

Special thanks to the trio (members of Pink Noise Ensemble: https://www.pinknoiseensemble.com/about) for their dedication to making made this experimental piece possible. Simon even built a number of special software instruments to play and improvise in sixth tones!

Brightly Drawn (2021) for Pink Noise Ensemble

Gareth Moorcraft - Vida
For solo piano
Performed by George Fu

For more details and score: https://ram.ac.uk/multimedia/vida

About 200 PIECES:

As part of its Bicentenary celebrations, the Royal Academy of Music embarked on an ambitious project, inviting 200 composers to write 200 new works for solo instrument or voice. The recordings and scores for these works, written for every principal study instrument taught at the Academy, are now available, creating a new library of varied contemporary works by many of the world’s leading composers.
ram.ac.uk/200-pieces

Vida

Moorcraft - Vida

This percussion quartet combines standard percussion instruments like marimba and vibraphone with the sounds of objects like paper, a take-out container, a wire music stand, and tuned glass bottles. The title came to me from rock-climber Emily Harrington, who repeated "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" like a mantra during her record-setting climb of El Capitan. This phrase struck me as oddly musical and I wanted to capture a sense that within any larger sweep of time, there are an infinity of instants being articulated. In the quartet, sudden tempo changes in are often smoothed over with complex rhythms; polymetric mutterings in different instruments coalesce as their timbres blur together. I hope the quartet captures something of the slipperiness of time.

percussion: Jonathan Collazo, Gabriel Costache, John Ferrari, Daniel Matei
conductor: Scott Allen Miller
recording and sound engineering: Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie
Recorded at LeFrak Concert Hall, Queens College, CUNY. Special thanks to George Katehis and Jeff Nichols.

(NYT article on Emily Harrington: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/sports/emily-harrington-free-climb-yosemite.html )

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast (2022) for percussion quartet

Composed and performed by Scott Allen Miller.
Recorded at the CUNY Graduate Center by Itzá Garcia and Tobias Fandel.

This solo bass piece is my first completed composition that uses 31 equal divisions of the octave. The title, which (as usual) I applied to the work after completing it, comes from Kim Stanley Robinson's novel The Ministry for the Future. It wonderfully describes the simultaneous force and fragility of so many things, from our political institutions to our tuning systems. I also love the layered imagery of a lacy gossamer net, somehow still and steady, overlaying a veiny block of impossibly animated granite. I hear a similar restlessness in the music's slippage across 31EDO's small steps (dieses) and the expressive variety of intervals this produces.

Granite of the careening world, held in gossamer nets of words (2023) in 31EDO for solo double bass

Monique Gabus - Déploration pour une Amie défunte

Scivolare Subito for piano solo
피아노를 위한 "급격히 미끄러지듯이" (2024)

Piano - Geon Soo Hwang 황건수

Recorded on June 17, 2025 at Lee Kang Sook Hall, Korea National University of Arts

(written in 2024/06-2024/08, revised in 2024/10)

Scivolare Subito (2024)

THE SONORITY CABINET IX: a collection of strange, rare and unusual pieces of music from ancient and contemporary times, brought together as a 'cabinet of curiosities', often mixing the glorious sound of Oosthuizen's historic organ with new, electronic textures.
Previous editions include the Mass (2013), Gothic (2014), Fun (2016), Love (2017), Dream (2018), Time (2019), Magic (2023) and Secret (2024).
Michael Bonaventure (1962, Edinburgh) is an organist and composer whose passion lies in unusual and experimental music and the blending of organ with electronic sounds. He performs new compositions for organ and/or electronics by himself & Luiz Henrique Yudo, the founders of this project, and also by American composer Frederick Frahm, the British composer Geoffrey King and the Spanish composer Javier Ruiz, plus works from the Buxheimer Orgelbuch, Pablo Bruna, J. P. Sweelinck & the Beatles. 

The video artist, Thomas Mohr, presented a new work specially created for this event.



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THE SONORITY CABINET IX - The SKY CABINET (2025)
Live recording
Grote Kerk, Oosthuizen, The Netherlands
25 SEP 2025



Michael Bonaventure, organ & electronics 




1. Praeludium (Ionian, F-major) - J. Pz. SWEELINCK (1561-1621)

2. Wegener's Continental Drift (2024) - Javier RUIZ (b. 1965) 

3. Die Süss Nachtigall - Anonymous (Buxheimer Orgelbuch ca. 1470) 

4. Prelude (2025 - première) - Geoffrey KING (b. 1949) 

5. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (1967) - John Lennon/Paul McCartney 

6. Celestial Objects II (2023) - Michael BONAVENTURE (b. 1962) 

7. Stille Nacht (1818) - Franz Xaver GRUBER (1787-1863) 

8. FIRMAMENT (2025 - première) I, II, III, IV - Luiz Henrique YUDO (b. 1962) 

9. Dr. Bull's Myselfe (Gigge) - John BULL (1562-1628) 

10. Tiento Primo Tono - Pablo BRUNA (1611-1679) 

11. The Mysteries of the Horizon (2025 - première) - Frederick FRAHM (b. 1964)







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THE SONORITY CABINET IX: The SKY CABINET (Live, Oosthuizen, Netherlands, September 2025)

First performed at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, by the Cambridge University Concert Orchestra.

27th February 2016

Programme Note:

Within ‘On the Heavens’, Aristotle posits the existence of two cosmological orbs; the sublunary sphere, which encloses the four terrestrial elements, and the celestial sphere of the heavens, which contains Aether: the fifth element.  ‘Between the Spheres’ explores the musical possibilities suggested by this system. 
The piece positions the listener as an observer at the boundary between the sublunary and celestial spheres, each of which is afforded individual musical treatment. Throughout the piece the music of each sphere is sounded concurrently but with oscillating priority, as though the attention of the observer is in constant flux. These musical ideas germinate from the same seed but are distinct by the nature of their development. The sublunary music maintains a continual forward trajectory and is only interrupted by its tendency to fracture or become corrupted. In contrast, the music of Aether and the celestial sphere is cyclical and self-referential, reflecting the incorruptible eternity of the heavens.  These musical tendencies are informed by Aristotle’s own descriptions of the motion of terrestrial and celestial elements: the former travelling linearly whilst the latter follow circular paths. A finale unites the spheres in concord, but the stability is fleeting. The piece fractures at the last, leaving just the slowly fading ‘aethereal’ music. 

Chris Mortlock (2016)


Between the Spheres

observation three :: for double string quartet and double bass 

Studio recording with 'zero theorem'

Dedicated to my friend and composer, Neil March

Composer-in-Residence to the Observatory: Two site-specifically inspired string quartets across two residency locations in one year. As a composer and painter I have a deeply held interest in the psychological and perceptual / emotional / intuitive associations between these two media and how ideas can be transacted one to the other. As well as creating two new string quartets I will also keep a video diary of the residency and creative experience, make sketches and paintings [on location] of the built and natural landscape features to explore transduction between the physical environment and sound construction transforming [intuitively] visual ideas into notation – landscape into sound. More here:  http://marc-yeats.co.uk/blog/category/composer-in-residence-to-the-observatory/  

'observation three' is an unforeseen extension to the work undertaken in the composition of the observations quartets as it brings the two quartets colliding together in antiphonal exchanges separated by the double bass who's content borrows from, develops and underpins the two quartets it is flanked by. This collision generates entirely new contextual relationships between the material of the quartets. These new contexts are amplified by the double bass material to generate a dense and energetic new work for strings. 

The subtitle, Salt Hill, refers to a chalk hill I visited whilst walking near Old Winchester Hill in Hampshire as part of my first residency. The title and subtitle act only as a stimulus to the imagination and a way of identifying the piece. The title holds certain resonances of the visit and what was in my mind at the time. Having said that, the music is in no way a programmatic or pastoral depiction of the place; the composer is fully aware that listeners will interpret music in many ways and appreciates that all personal interpretations are valid.  

Asynchronous composition - notes:  
The instrumentalists play independently of each other. Music is cued to begin only with instruments starting at the same time. There is no ‘fixed’ synchronisation between the instrumentalists. Whilst the relationship of each instrument is flexibly placed against its neighbour, care has been taken to calculate potential outcomes of coincidence and variability. To this end it is vital that metronome markings and time code are adhered to as accurately as possible although the composer appreciates that it is the various interpretations and practicalities inherent in the realisation of tempi that contribute to the richly unique nature and interplay of each performance.   

Compositional material is derived from a series of distant variations that unify all sections with thematic landmarks. Thematic material is audible throughout the piece, bringing cohesion and structure to the work. All the instrumental roles are written to a high degree of virtuosity and most contain extended techniques and quarter-tones. The music itself forms dense, highly complex and constantly changing relationships that are frequently wild and sometimes beautiful.   

The score and parts  
I have not produced a score for observation three; difficulties and variables associated with displaying the musical material in vertical alignment as represented in real time are considerable. Each performance will yield somewhat different results, interplays, gestural and harmonic references and outcomes. As a result, the material contained within the piece can only be read via the instrumental parts. Consequently there is no definitive performance of the piece. observation three can only be realised through performance [as opposed to comprehended by reading through a score]; this is the nature of the music - it has to be experienced to be ‘known’.   

circa 15 minutes in duration.    

Marc Yeats -July 2016 

Observation 3 [salt hill] for double string quartet and double bass

Marc Yeats is an internationally renowned composer and visual artist whose compositions have been performed by the most noted of orchestras and ensembles across the globe. These include UK companies such as The London Sinfonietta and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic and the Halle Orchestra and Chorus. Further afield, Marc’s work has also been performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic, the Atlanta based, Chamber Cartel, and many others. His compositions have gained great acclaim through many radio broadcasts for the BBC and also been broadcast in many other countries including the US, Germany and New Zealand.

Marc’s relationship with the BBC is both strong and enduring, starting with a BBC Scotland performance by the Edinburgh String Quartet more than 20 years ago. His first orchestral work – I See Blue – conducted by Martyn Brabbins, received much acclaim when first performed around the same time. This led to specific BBC commissions, including a piano concerto to open Piano 2000 in Manchester, with Kathryn Stott as soloist, and a solo harpsichord piece ‘Rhema’, performed by Mahan Esfahani and broadcast in 2010 by BBC Radio 3 from the Clothworkers’ Centenary Concert Hall in Leeds.

Selection as one of just 10 to attend the legendary Hoy Summer School in 1994 brought Marc into contact with the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. At the completion of the course, Max was keen to support and promote Marc’s work, and conducted his first commission with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the St. Magnus Festival in 1997. He and Marc continued to share ideas, and Max took a great interest in Marc’s visual art and compositional work with mobile technologies and a range of asynchronous structural approaches to composition.

Marc is excited to have recently been appointed composer-in-residence to Yeovil District and Dorchester County Hospitals, a position he has also held with other UK and US organisations. Work such as My Blood Is As Red As Yours’ (an orchestral and choral piece commissioned by the Halle to celebrate World Aids Day in 2008 and performed at the Bridgewater Hall) and recent work, such as ‘shapeshifter’ and ‘the observation quartets’ continues to enhance his reputation as a leading contemporary composer.

Observation 3 [salt hill] for double string quartet and double bass

Marc Yeats

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