For Violin, Cello and Clarinet.  Blackened Word (2014) explores in sound the idea of rewriting a word multiple times with charcoal in the same place on a piece of paper.  A small selection of intervals based on the just intonation ratios of 9:8 and 4:5 (yet displaced by an octave) are presented in the string parts whilst the clarinet remains in equal temperament. The subtle difference between the two tuning worlds increases in prominence as the piece progresses.  With this comes a  microtonal harmony between the clarinet and string parts that perhaps mirrors the ‘smudging’ that charcoal is capable of on paper. Blackened Word lasts a little over 8 minutes.

Blackened Word (2014) by Nicholas Peters

The setting for Scantlebury is in the home, with Juliet sat at a table with a radio cassette recorder that she has used all of her life, and continues to use, to regularly record an audio-diary. The constant re-use of the same few tapes has led to new entries being irregularly recorded over old ones, resulting in a ‘broken’ audio history whereby memories intersect one another to form new 'false' memories. A complex relationship between Juliet and the tape machine explores the question of whether she is trapped inside these memories or if in fact she can move beyond them? The title of this piece is taken from the surname of my Grandad, Gerald Scantlebury, who provided memories of his immediate family for the text of this piece.

Scantlebury was commissioned by Juliet Fraser and The Pound with funds from Arts Council England, the Hinrichsen Foundation and The RVW Trust. This piece was written especially for Juliet who gave the work its first performance on Friday 6 November 2015 at The Pound, Corsham. 

Scantlebury is dedicated to Juliet Fraser and to the memory of my Grandad, Gerald Scantlebury.

Scantlebury (2015) by Nicholas Peters

Resonant / dampened / give / it / me / back / are just some of the markings on the score. Give was written for Abstrukt in April-May 2016.

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Give was written for Abstruckt Ensemble and premiered at the 840: New Music for Percussion on 01/06/2016.

Give (2016) By Nicholas Peters

This is a LIVE recording of Alex Wilson's performance of Intrepid (2005) at The Pound, Corsham on Wednesday 11 May 2016.

PROGRAMME TEXT:
Intrepid is a solo piano piece that, after an initial workshop with the pianist Philip Thomas, became focused around the extensive use of the sustained pedal. He also directed me to John Adams’ China Gates and György Ligeti’s Études pour piano, premier livre. From looking at these pieces I realised that holding the sustained pedal down for long periods of time would enable me to incorporate my initial ideas of counterpoint for the piece. After this the piece developed additional
focuses, namely that of constant evolution whereby the same material never returns at a later stage in the piece. Throughout the piece I was interested in how the ordering of smaller rhythmical
patterns, mainly groupings of three and two quavers marked with accents, affects the longer phrases indicated by the re-application of the sustained pedal. In addition to the rhythmical development I also became interested in bitonality, where the left hand remains in Eflat major and the right hand occupies Emajor with Eflat/Dsharp acting as a pivotal note where the harmony of the two hands meets. This relationship is explored mainly by swapping the different tonal areas in the hands, leading to a change in sound when the interval distance is altered. Philip Thomas gave the first performance on 7th June 2006 in St Paul’s Hall at the University of Huddersfield. The piece
lasts around 15 minutes, or 12 minutes if the alternate ending (inserted after page 23) is employed.

I wish to thank the pianist Philip Thomas for the time that he gave so generously to explain to me the piano’s capabilities with specific reference to the musical ideas that are used in Intrepid. These
sessions were incredibly useful and had a profound effect on the progression and development of this piece.

Intrepid (2005) by Nicholas Peters

placebo was written especially for Alex Wilson, Emma Welton and George Sleightholme to be performed for the first time as part of the 840 series at St James’ Church, Islington on Saturday 25 March 2017.

Placebo (2016 - 17) by Nicholas Peters

Scattered Polaroids is primarily concerned with exploring in sound the idea of reflection, essentially the mirroring of material in separate pitch bands to create a pitch void in between the two. This performance by the Manon Quartet took place as part of the 840 series at St James’ Church, Islington on Saturday 6 May 2017.

Scattered Polaroids (2007) by Nicholas Peters

HarM explores ideas that I first encountered in Kerry Tribe’s double projection of a single 16mm film called H.M. (2009) that was recently on display at The Wellcome Collection, London. Tribe’s film explores the true story of Henry Molaison, an amnesiac man, identified simply as “Patient H.M.”, who underwent “frankly experimental” surgery to cure his debilitating epilepsy in 1953. An unintended outcome of the surgery was that Molaison was unable to form new long term memories although his short term recall, for around 20 seconds, remained intact. I was struck by Tribe’s exploration of this short term recall through the use of a 20
second delay between two adjacent film projections to evoke the duration and loss of memory experienced by Molaison. In my piece I have also set up the same 20 second delay between two adjacent duet performances. Furthermore I have explored two types of material, one whereby the singer is trapped by their inability to create more long term memories and the other whereby the singer re-enacts in sound the scientific mirror drawing experiments Molaison was put through after his surgery.

HarM was performed for the first time by the NME Ensemble as part of the 840 series concert at St James' Church, Islington on Saturday 10 December 2016.

HarM (2016) by Nicholas Peters

Going Missing (2008) for Solo Tenor Recorder.  This is a live recording of the Premiere performance by Charotte Pugh at The Michael Tippett Centre, Bath Spa University in November 2008.

Going Missing (2008)

This is the live recording from 840's 5th Birthday concert at Cafe Oto on Friday 31 January 2020.  Performed by Peteris Sokolovskis (cello), Francesca Gilbert (viola), Sara Rodrigues (voice) Rodrigo B. Camacho (voice).  Photo by Ilme Vysniauskaite.

HarM explores ideas that I first encountered in Kerry Tribe’s double projection of a single 16mm film called H.M. (2009) that was recently on display at The Wellcome Collection, London. Tribe’s film explores the true story of Henry Molaison, an amnesiac man, identified simply as “Patient H.M.”, who underwent “frankly experimental” surgery to cure his debilitating epilepsy in 1953. An unintended outcome of the surgery was that Molaison was unable to form new long term memories although his short term recall, for around 20 seconds, remained intact. I was struck by Tribe’s exploration of this short term recall through the use of a 20 second delay between two adjacent film projections to evoke the duration and loss of memory experienced by Molaison. In my piece I have also set up the same 20 second delay between two adjacent duet performances. Furthermore I have explored two types of material, one whereby the singer is trapped by their inability to create more long term memories and the other whereby the singer re-enacts in sound the scientific mirror drawing experiments Molaison was put through after his surgery.

HarM (LIVE from 840's 5th Birthday concert at Cafe Oto)

Nicholas Peters (b. 1984) studied composition with Christopher Fox at Huddersfield (05-06) and Brunel University (06-09), where he was awarded a PhD in Composition.  Between 2007 and 2010 he was a Sound and Music (SAM) shortlisted composer. He has had works performed in concerts and workshops across the UK and abroad by numerous artists including JACK Quartet, Ensemble Interface, Ives Ensemble, EXAUDI, Fidelio Trio, Tre Voci, Anton Lukoszevieze, Juliet Fraser, Claire Edwardes, Alex Wilson, Zubin Kanga, Abstrukt and Block4. Peters has attended the Darmstadt Summer Courses (2010 and 2012), Impuls Academy (2011), as well as having his music performed at Soundwaves Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival, hcmf// and broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Hear and Now programme. He co-founded and co-curated 840, an experimental music concert series between 2014 and 2017. He was the composer in residence at the Pound, Corsham for the 2015/16 season.

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