Extended version for symphony orchestra brass and percussion

Bright Horizons For Symphonic Brass Section 22 Feb 2024

This is an excerpt frm Act II of La Mouche! - a Homage to The Fly.  Nicole knows that she must descend into the laboratory - Das Bunker - where she knows something strange has happened....

La Mouche The Descent into Das Bunker!

Setting the tone for the production - the joy of Theremin

La Mouche! Act I Opening Music

Sibelius sound file of arrangement of Bernard Herrmann's masterpiece - Pyscho - for my favourite Sax Quartet - Sax Ecosse

Pyscho Theme B Herrmann Arr For Sax Quartet Matthew Rooke 1 August 2014

test for son et lumière show using Sibelus rendering

Zadok The Priest

extended further with addition of a prelude, bell peel-like section

Bright Horizons For Symphonic Brass Section (Crotchet = 144) 20 Nov 2023

Opening work for Symphony orchestra brass and percussion sections

This is the air section for Metal baroque a multi-media modern "Son et Lumiere" blending baroque passion with metal bombast for sax quartet, keyboard strings, organ and choir, plus electric/double bass and percussion.  The show is largely based on the music of Handel, plus a few cameo appearances.

Metal Baroque: "Air Section" Sarabande segue Zadok the Priest

re-orchestration for wind ensemble (bass clarinet solo; Fl, Ob,Cl 1,cl 2, Bass Cl, Bassoon 1, bassoon 2 This work is a little fantasy in that it imagines that when Vaughan Williams was marvelling at the lark Ascending, in the background, ignored by the composer there was a scruffy old crow who believed that he had as much right as the beautiful lark to be able to sing his song and soar.  So as the work develops, with crow-like mimicry  the crow (or "craw" in scots - it in English it says "And a Crow can Sing Too") strives to soar and after numerous attempts finally makes it to the same heights and for brief time achieves that moment of perception when one is soaring high above everything and all seems clear and so transformed begins his descent back to the life of an unknown, ignored scavenger but somehow transformed in the process.

An A Craw Can Sing An Aw (Wind Septet Version)

Examples of vocal writing. Short instrumental prelude 0.00 to 1.109; 1.10 extract from At Boussa Falls; 2.14 extract from Dies Irae; and 2.48 extract from The Waterfall. Donald Maxwell and Gwenneth Ann Rand (Jeffers). National Youth Orchestra of Scotland plus Fraser Fifield (Scottish Whistle) Corinna Hewat (Clarsach) and Olly Cox (percussion). The music spans african, scottish traditional and classical idiomatc approaches. NOT high quality - mp3

Flyting Examples

Extracts from Flyting - Instrumental and Vocal Work

Elgar Sea Pictures - orchestration for Chamber orchestra single wind plus Horn and strings. Live concert recording

Elgar Sea Pictures (Rooke reduction) 5 - The Swimmer

Ae Fond Farewell - Peter Hagen

This is the second of four movements from the Flyting Concert Suite.  This piece starts with an elegy for Low D Scots Whistle, followed by a a duet for Soprano and Bass with strings and, piano, celeste and percussion and is an imagining of the final moments of the life of the early 19th century explorer, Mungo Park's life.

02 - At Boussa Falls(1)

This is the third and forth and final movement from the Flyting Concert Suite. Flyting takes its name from of 16th century performance poetry, akin to modern rap. Flyting as a movement itself is an instrumental work for the whole orchestra but featuring Scots low D whistle which segues into a setting of William Soutar's poem, "The Waterfall" 

03 - Flyting segue into The Waterfall(1)

This is the first of four movements for the Flyting Concert Suite. The piece is about Mungo Park, the early 19th century Scottish African explorer, and sets his words drawn from his journals and letters home.

01 - Mungo's Journey(1)

Composer, Producer and Director working in opera

matthewrooke

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