Symphony 2 - version for 2 pianos

An attempt to create the soundscape of Silbury Hill at Avebury

Avebury3-TWU

A new piece for String Orchestra.  Thank you for listening and hope you enjoy.

For String Orchestra

Hope you enjoy this piano piece recorded on a Bosendorfer.

Now I Know

Saint Mark Passion - part 4, complete

Misericordia

Ensemble InterContemporain
Nicolò Umberto Foron, conductor

Premiere (live recording)
Friday 10th November 2023

60° Festival Nuova Consonanza 
Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone

© Ph: Cantarelli Marta
© Archivio Nuova Consonanza

Seeds of Light

Jean-Philippe Rameau 'Les Indes Galantes'  - Suite arranged by Paul Max Edlin 

for:  
Flute (doubling piccolo and bass flute) 
Clarinet in A (doubling bass-clarinet) 
Percussion (triangle, crotales [bowed], vibraphone, marimba, 3 gongs, tam-tam, tenor drum, tambourine) 
Piano 
Violin 
'Cello   

1. Air pour les Esclaves Affricains 
2. Tambourines 
3. Adoration du soleil 
4. Air pour boree et la rose 
5. Danse du grand calumet de paix executee par les sauvages  

Duration: circa 9 - 10 minutes   

Programme note:  
Rameau's opera-ballet 'Les Indes Galantes' ('The Amorous Indes') was first realised in Paris' Palais Royale in 1735.  It is a strange and somewhat incoherent story in several parts, set seemingly in the South Americas, yet really nowhere at all - just in some strange world not known to us.  We must remember that this was a time of discovery, and adventure and the exotic was to be marvelled at simply for its curiosity.  Rameau's music is startlingly adventurous and is certainly highly exotic, containing music of a wealth of heightened colours.  This transcription takes a movement from each act (the Prologue and each of the four subsequent Entrées) therefore giving a nod to the work's overall design.  This instrumentation is certainly alien to anything Rameau would have known.  While his creation would have used percussion, these would have been fairly rudimentary instruments, and he certainly would not have had access to the plethora of types of instruments that have worked their way into the orchestral palette.  Furthermore, the clarinet and piano had yet to be invented, and the bass flute had not even been imagined.  This transcription goes beyond the conventional use of that word. The music is restyled.  It is done so to leave a message.  A sardonic wit should permeate the whole and we should find ourselves both amused by what we hear, yet also somewhat surprised that we can take for granted music with such titles.  And yet, Rameau's music is exquisite, and the 'Adoration du soleil' (Adoration of the sun') is breathtakingly beautiful.  The 'Air to the African Slaves' gives way to a Chaplainesque 'Tambourin' - the first of these two inhabiting sounds that are deep and rumbustious, and the second being exceedingly light and frivolous.  'The Dance of the Savages' now mixes the music of Russia with Klezmer, Vienna, France, Tango and Great Britain, among an amorphous pool.  After all, we are all savages at times.  The irony is personal.  I am often bedevilled by man's frequent inability to behave decently.  I am amused and saddened that so called leaders can make so many mistakes - and in its year of composition (2014) that celebrated the centenary of beginning of the First World War, remembering the innumerable consequences that needless war created was certainly in my mind.  But so were the mini jostlings of power in so many environments - even in homes. Thus this transcription becomes something of an irreverent and cheeky nod, which is nonetheless serious in its fundamental creation.  The result is a journey in which we discover Rameau's music anew, revel in its colour and charm, laugh at its wit, and ponder the inadequacy of mankind in its ability to properly understand itself.  This recording, made at a live event with a roving microphone, was given by the Ossian Ensemble, directed by Darren Bloom
© Paul Max Edlin, August 2014

Les Indes Galantes (2014) - Ossian Ensemble

Live recording Teatro Grande di Brescia - Three songs on the persian poetry by Rūmī - Giulia Peri, soprano - Lamberto Curtoni, Cello

Three Persian Lyrics

Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese
Marco Moresco, conductor

Dark Clouds, for orchestra

Sheet music: https://ump.co.uk/catalogue/max-noah-the-candle-lagoon/
www.noahmax.net
It is told that if you approach the Lagoon at sunset, light a small candle and whisper your darkest secret to the waters, the waters will respond by summoning forth from the depths of the Lagoon a vision of your future, laid bare in the evening light. The Tale of the Candle Lagoon tells of a child — you, me, humanity entire — who does just this, but sees in the surface of the Lagoon only a reflection of themselves, of the burning clouds and the setting sun, a ball of fire nestled under the water. As twilight turns to night and the world turns cold, the child wonders which is more terrifying: has History been falsified, or are they and the whole Universe destined to burn?

Recorded live at the world premiere performance at St. Giles' Cripplegate on 26th November, 2018 Echo Ensemble: Winter Sun
Conducted by the composer

The Candle Lagoon, Op.8 (World Premiere) | Noah Max, 2018

Paul Max Edlin, 2016/2017 Composer in Residence for the London Chamber Orchestra, has a career that combines composing with higher education, artistic direction and performing.  

His works have been performed by many leading artists including Alison Balsom, Arditti Quartet, Britten Sinfonia, David Campbell, Cantus Ansambl, Dame Sarah Connolly, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Rolf Hind, Johannes Möller, London Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Olga Pasiecznik, Psappha, Silesian Quartet, Southbank Sinfonia and Gabriella Swallow.

He studied with Edwin Roxburgh, Richard Blackford and Joseph Horowitz (Royal College of Music) and Michael Finnissy (University of Sussex). He has won many prizes including Premio Internazionale Ancona, Harriet Cohen Memorial Award and United Music Publishers Prize. His music explores symbolism and often derives its inspiration from extra musical material. From the mid 80’s to mid 90’s many works were inspired by the art and architecture of South-East Asia, especially Indochina. From 2000 onward symbolism of a wider range of sources guided his music, from the chiastic structures of J.S. Bach to the writings of Gabriel García Márquez and Federico García Lorca and visual work of Frida Kahlo.

He is former Director of Music at Queen Mary University of London. He was Artistic Director of Deal Music & Arts (formerly Deal Festival) from 2004 to 2021, Sounds New (2007 to 2013), Director of International Composer Pyramid (2008-2023) and was Chair of the Board of of Trustees of Ora Singers. He is current Chair of China U.K. International Music Festival. He supports a range of charities and arts organisations through activities on their various boards and committees.  From 2012 to 2013 he was President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), the UK's leading association for professional musicians.

Les Indes Galantes (2014) - Ossian Ensemble

Paul Max Edlin

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