Punch and Judy meets Pirates of Penzance... couldn't you find room for a short ballet? Great fun!!!

Finally, I have heard the legendary opera!

Recorded at The Stiwt on 24/07/14.

Music: William Mathias 
Text: Dylan Thomas
National Youth Choir of Wales
Conductor: David Lawrence
Percussion: Simone Rebello
Piano: Julian Wilkins

Engineered and produced by James Clarke and Jim Unwin.


Ceremony After A Fire Raid

Mike McCartney - Guitar
James Hulme - Percussion



The Dream Of Macsen (2009)

Sólveig Thoroddsen - Harp
Recorded and mastered by Riccardo Castagnola

Atomer (2013)

In The Rose Apple Grove is a setting of a spontaneous poem recited by King Indrabhuti to the Buddha. Having asked the Buddha for his advice on how to attain Buddhahood, Gautama said '...abandon sense pleasure...' The king responded by asking is there a way to attain Buddhahood through enjoyment. 

'In the Rose Apple Grove so joyful to experience.
Even if I were to become a fox in my next life,
A liberation that abandons the sense pleasures
I could never desire, O Gautama'

Despite initially looking brash, King Indrabhuti's words are profound, highlighting how you cannot escape the world if you attain enlightenment. He also asks the question is enlightenment worth attaining if it makes us detached from our fellow man. From this King Indrabhuti attained enlightenment and was bestowed all of the tantras which he taught to his whole kingdom of Uddiyana.

'Of these recent works by Ben Lunn, the choral setting of words by King Indrabhuti of Uddiyana In the rose apple grove is the most immediately appealing, with its close-knit harmonies reminding this listener at least of similar works of ‘holy mysticism’ coming from Scandinavia and the Baltic states. The anonymous singers seem thoroughly comfortable with the idiom, despite the clear difficulties of tuning – which they surmount with apparent ease. The words themselves are not clear, but the aim of the composer is evidently to achieve an atmosphere of ectsasy and contemplation rather than to closely mirror the text. ..' - P.C.G.

In The Rose Apple Grove (2016)

Cornelia Parker’s ‘Breathless’ sculpture hangs in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, comprising some fifty old brass instruments which have been crushed flat.  It was commissioned in 2001 by the V&A trustees on the understanding that brass bands no longer existed and had become part of our history.  Parker described that music as ‘part of the robustness we used to have’ and ‘like an anthem which is slowly winding down.’ 

My quintet is in two movements, reflecting the dualities evident in her art: light/dark, silence/noise, upper class/lower class, North/South, death/resurrection etc.  

The movements also mirror the fact that her work (which hangs in a space between two floors) can be viewed from above or below, with polished upper surfaces and tarnished undersides; in my piece the ‘musical objects’ can be encountered from multiple perspectives – a recurring idea in my work.

Parker’s sculpture was designed to hang in a specific location in the museum, just as mine was intended to be played (although hopefully not exclusively!) within a particular space.  The first, quick movement is called ‘Unit’ and the contrasting second is entitled ‘Aria’.

Breathless is published by UYMP

Breathless

Listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's shortest opera, The Sands of Time was composed by Peter Reynolds to a libretto by Simon Rees in 1993 and first performed in the centre of Cardiff, UK, by soprano Rhian Owen and baritone Dominic Burns with members of the (then) Welsh College of Music and Drama. This is a recording of that performance which set a world record of 4.09'. A subsequent performance by the BBC set a new record of 3.34'.

The Sand of Time: an opera in four minutes

A pirate story for narrator and brass ensemble. Music by Gareth Woods, words by Francesca Kay. This recording features Francesca Kay narrating, with the brass ensemble of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, conducted by Kevin Price.
A humorous and quirky story with wonderfully descriptive music, featuring a storm at sea, a lost puppy and a famous pirate ghost. 
Audiences for this piece have usually been under the age of 10, and almost exclusively dressed as pirates. Yo ho!
Sea Dogs was commissioned by Ty Cerdd, Music Centre Wales, and has had many performances.

Sea Dogs. A pirate tale for narrator & brass ensemble.

A magical tale for narrator and chamber orchestra. The First Dragon tells the story of a mysterious dragon, some foolish adults, and a very wise little girl. Commissioned by Adrian Partington, words by Francesca Kay and beautiful music by Mervyn Burtch. Originally commissioned as a companion piece for Peter and the Wolf, The First Dragon has had many performances on its own, and has formed part of very successful music projects for children run by Ty Cerdd, the Music Centre for Wales. 
The recording features Francesca Kay narrating, and Adrian Partington conducting The Dragon Sinfonia, an ensemble formed just for the recording. Their leader was Nick Whiting, and the piece was recorded at Sonic-One Studios.


The First Dragon, a tale for narrator and orchestra.

LATEST NEWS
Peter Reynolds is currently working on a  Arts Council of Wales Creative Wales award. He is currently engaged on a short film based around a deserted chapel at Cippyn near Cardigan in collaboration with the Faculty of Creative Industries at ATRiuM (Course Leader, Bilingual Media Production) at the University of South Wales. An interim version of the film was presented as an installation at ATRiuM on 4 March. 
The Mavron Quartet have record the string quartet, footsteps quiet in the shadows following a run of eight performances between 2012-14. 

Beiliheulog was performed four times last year including performances at St Hugh's College Oxford, Fishguard Festival and Partrishow Church.

The Sands of Time wasl be given by Intimate Opera, Indianopolis, on 6 & 7 June (see .www.intimateopera.org/IntimateOpera/).

Peter Reynolds's cantata, Adieu to all alluring toys has just been issued by Meridian on CDE 84614 performed by Paul Carey Jones and Ian Ryan. See 
http://www.meridian-records.co.uk/acatalog/CDE84614_Songs_Now.html for more details and to hear an extract

PETER REYNOLDS was born in Cardiff where he studied and now lives and works. During the 1980s he received several bursaries to attend the Dartington Summer School where he attended composition classes by Morton Feldman, Peter Maxwell Davies and Gordon Crosse. He was awarded the Michael Tippett Award for Composition in 1986. His first large-scale commission, a work for chamber orchestra, was completed in 1987 for the Dartington Summer School. 

His music has been has been broadcast on Radio 3, BBC Wales and BBC Television and performed in Britain, Europe and the USA at venues and festivals including Bangor New Music Festival, Brighton Festival, Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Chapter, Cardiff, Cheltenham Town Hall, Dartington International Summer School, Go West Festival, Lincoln Cathedral; Late Music Festival, York, Lower Machen Festival, Monmouth Festival, Purcell Room (Southbank Centre), St David’s Hall, Cardiff, Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Vale of Glamorgan Festival, Wales Millennium Centre, Waterford New Music Week, Ireland, & Welsh Week (Brussels).

In 1993 his opera, The Sands of Time was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as a world record for the world's shortest opera at 3 minutes and 34 seconds. He joined the academic staff of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff in 1994 and has also been a tutor of composition there since 2002.

In addition to his work as a composer, Peter Reynolds was Artistic Director of both the Cardiff-based PM Music Ensemble and the Lower Machen Festival (1997-2009). He is also a writer on music and published a history of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2009. 

His music is characterised by stillness, simplicity, an occasional playfulness and a tendency to set unusual and quixotic texts. His music avoids large-scale rhetorical forms and is often fashioned on a small-scale and revised over many years before reaching its final shape. 

The Sand of Time: an opera in four minutes

Peter.Reynolds

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