Name: The Force That Binds Us (live) by Sam Buttler
Duration: 6 min 50 s
Description: Trio for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano. Recorded at Royal Holloway, University of London

Written for Tŷ Cerdd’s CoDI Lead pathway 2022

Composer's note:
"Growth and Honesty is a creative exploration of both my current and previous practice styles. It is an electronic piece which utilises short sample files performed by the ensemble that were later manipulated and processed to produce both sonic and acoustic extracts. The opening consists of ambient and lyrical gestures which closely relate to previous areas of my practice. This later transitions into an energetic and rhythmic section that became the fundamental exploration of a style which was current for me. Through the assistance of both Lloyd Coleman and the ensemble members Growth and Honesty has allowed me to explore abstract ideas and continue my growth, as a recent graduate. But, ultimately what was most important was simply enjoying the process of making sounds, without feeling the need to establish a concept: growing and developing as a composer."

Tayla-Leigh Payne: Growth And Honesty

Lyrics and music by Eve Rowlands
Produced by James Clarke

Real Me

Trio for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano. Recorded at Royal Holloway, University of London

The Force That Binds Us (live)

written for the Berkeley Ensemble, as part of Tŷ Cerdd's CoDI Chamber Residency

Permission to use the recording - 'Peth mawr ydi cariad' - has been kindly granted by National Museum Wales /Amgeuddfa Cymru. Collection details are as follows: SFNHM Tape 171. Collected 30.04.1959 from Miss M. M. Williams (teacher, b. 1894), Idanfryn, Brynsiencyn, Anglesey

First Performance -- Berkeley Ensemble on 10 April 2019 at University Concert Hall, Cardiff University (UK)

Programme Note --

I started this project from a very pure place, just using the voice of Miss M. M. Williams (recorded 1959 in Idanfryn, Anglesey) singing of love and loss. And little by little I go from her world to my world, which is much more cacophonous and has a more urban sensibility. 

There is a very personal connection for me at play here. I have always performed and connected with the traditional music of Wales. The tales. The myth. Stories of families. The joy. The heartache. Fascinated with the nostalgia. How can we reconnect with this music and the messages within in a world of such change? What would happen if the ancient forms of our music are lost in translation and buried?

-njd

under the earth

o dan y ddaear (excerpt)

Composed and conducted by Amy Summers.
Recorded and mixed by Piraxa Studios. 
Choir: friends, graduates, current/pre/post music college level students.
Recorded at Trinity College of Music on 24/06/19.

Text: 
Ave Virgo sanctissima
Dei mater piisima
Maris stella clarissima
Salve semper gloriosa
Margarita pretiosa
Sicut lilium formosa
Nitens olens velut rosa

Translation:
Hail, Holy Virgin,
most blessed Mother of God,
bright star of the sea.
Hail, ever glorious,
precious pearl,
lovely as the lily,
beautiful and perfumed as the rose.

2. Ave Virgo sanctissima SATB div.

Sam Buttler: "As a composer, I’ve always been fascinated by the natural world and science as inspiration for my music. Water Portraits evokes three different states of water.  The final movement, ‘Rapids and Falls’ is a frenetic finale, ending by going over the edge of a waterfall."

Sam Buttler - Water Portraits Mvt. III

A solo piano arrangement of 'iii. we used to' from 'turning tides', a multi-movement work for massed choirs and piano commissioned by the Welsh National Opera, as part of their Cradle Project.

Advertised first performance: Swansea Youth Choir, 'ChoirWorks'; Musical Memories; Ros Evans (cond.) at The Brangwyn, Swansea (UK) on 31 March 2020; event cancelled due to Government advice in light of the COVID-19 crisis.

Recording (living room) performance: Mary Dullea (piano)

we used to

1/7 Tracks for 7 Friends 7 Days project

1 track a day, each a reflection on a different friend.

Friend 1

Performed by students of the University of York in 2018. 

Conducted by George Clark. 
Special thanks to Molly Moran for all her help in the recording process!

Earth's Answer

Sam Buttler (b. 1996) is a Welsh composer. He was the recipient of the 2024 Paul Mealor Award for Young Composers from the Welsh Music Guild. He was also a member of the 2024 JAM on the Marsh Composer’s Residency, writing an opera based on the films of Derek Jarman with a libretto by Grahame Davies. In 2024, he also released his debut EP with Ensemble Matters, To the waters and the wild… for pierrot ensemble. In 2023, he was selected as part of the Peter Reynolds Composers Studio at the Vale of Glamorgan Festival, writing two new works for cello octet and violin and piano. He was also recently shortlisted for Composition: Wales 2022 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with the piece Stones have memory here…, premiered in May 2022. He was chosen as one of the six composers for Tŷ Cerdd’s CoDI Lead scheme, working closely with a quartet of musicians from Paraorchestra on a new work, Chariots, Death, Jewels, and the Moon, premiered in March 2022.

He is currently Associate Composer with The Ripieno Players, and they premiered his concerto for guitar and strings, Water Portraits, in 2019. In 2019, he worked closely with the flautist Lily Caunt on a ceiling full of stars, a piece inspired by and recorded in The Monteath Mausoleum in the Scottish Borders. This work incorporates sound from the surroundings as well as within the mausoleum, and has since been published by Tetractys Publishing. A version for recorder was premiered by James Risdon as part of the RNS Moves Concert Series in 2020. He was selected as one of the six composers for Tŷ Cerdd’s 2020 CoDI Mentors Scheme, where he worked closely with the composer Freya Waley-Cohen. His music has been regularly used by the Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales in a variety of promotional material.  During the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, he also remotely recorded After This Manner for five voices and Extend the Dawn for solo oboe and electronics.

In 2018, he was selected as one of eight composers commissioned for Royal Holloway’s Distant Voices, Current Drifts project with the Royal Holloway New Music Collective. Also in 2018, he recorded a trio of choral works in St Peter’s College Chapel, Oxford with Joe Davies (conductor) and singers from the University of Oxford. Also in 2018, he was chosen to participate in the 2018 Etchings Festival with the ECCE Ensemble. In 2019, he was selected as one of the Emerging Composers at the Ludlow English Song Weekend.

He graduated in 2017 with a BA in Music from St Peter’s College, Oxford. He then received a Distinction in his MMus in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London with Aaron Holloway-Nahum, John Traill, and Chris Whiter in 2018. In 2020, he started a PhD in Composition at King’s College, London, supervised by Edward Nesbit and George Benjamin.

The Force That Binds Us (live)

Sam Buttler

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