A quiet, lyrical movement punctuated by bursts of sunlight

Symphony. No 1 Lento "...it Caught His Image As He Flew"

From Act III of the opera THE SCARS ON HIS BACK", this interlude describes the runners traveling to the Pueblos to co-ordinate the uprising inspired by the Native American freedom fighter Po'pay in 1680. The tension mounts as the day approaches, and the cries of victory can be heard in the brass and percussion chords at the end. See www.simonwandrews.com for more details about the opera.

Interlude No. 3 from "The Scars On His Back"

If you venture outside around dusk in late April or early May near a pond in the Massachusetts countryside, you are likely to hear a remarkable chorus. It is produced by male eastern American toads as they try to attract a mate, and consists of a series of long, high-pitched trills, each of which can last up to twenty seconds. Each animal produces a different note from its neighbour, but as a group they seem to limit themselves to three or four pitches, resulting in a magical, otherworldly, multi-layered counterpoint.  One evening I was transfixed by such an ethereal recital, and its sound-world became the starting point for Till voices wake us, taking the form of high, pianissimo string harmonics.

Lovers of T. S. Eliot will doubtless recognise in Till voices wake us the near quotation of the last three lines of Prufrock:

		We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
		By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
		Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Till voices wake us inhabits the liminal space between the two ‘worlds’ and is a sequence of dream-like events open to many narratives.

Till Voices Wake Us

The text for "My Dove, My Coney" is an early, lyrical poem by Auden which contains, in a few, concentrated lines, and unusually frank depiction of sexual desire. My setting translates into sound the tension between Auden's early influences (Wordsworth and Hardy) and his modernist approach (influenced by Eliot). The instruments underscore the metaphors in the text and the tonality expands as they become more visceral, leading to the final release "strike for the heart, and have me there".

My Dove, My Coney

The Heart Has Narrow Banks is part of a series of short pieces that arose from the desire to experiment with ways of re-introducing elements of tonality into my music without "dumbing down". The images in the poem were the perfect opportunity to create a more flexible harmonic language that could express "blue monotony", a "bisecting" hurricane and a "wall of unattempted guaze" while maintaining a constant musical thread.

The Heart Has Narrow Banks

This very slow, contemplative movement comes after a more traditionally formed first movement and precedes a very lively, rhythmic, scherzo-like Chaconne.

String Quartet No. 2 "Quasi Un Fantasia" (live)

A short three song cycle to a new poem by Elle LeBlanc about the sensuality of loss

Seasons Audio

Yesterday we danced
Tipped the universe on its edge
And held it in our palms
Until eternity passed away
And the world was young

Yesterday We Danced

This is my arrangement of the original Clarinet Quintet movement for piano and clarinet

And That Moment When The Bird Sings (piano version)

Simon Andrews is an English composer who is earning a reputation as a creator of eloquent concert music that blends harmonic complexity and lyricism, introversion and broad gestures, delicate timbres and bold statements. His output ranges from large-scale orchestral works to intimate chamber music, with a special delight in chamber music with solo voices. He is a voracious reader of poetry and fiction, which provide the impulse for many of his compositions. Winner of the 1985 Benjamin Britten Prize, his music has been commissioned and performed to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. He moved to America in 1987, since when he has pursued a multi- faceted career as composer, conductor and teacher, a combination which led him to undertake his own edition- completion of the Mozart Requiem, which also continues to garner both praise and performances on both sides of the pond.
After gaining a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, he lived in Pennsylvania for twenty-five years before moving to Massachusetts. He is currently working on his third string quartet Rilke episodes and a new opera Po’pay: the first American revolution. If you would like to find out more, peruse sample scores or listen to sound clips, you might find a visit to simonwandrews.com time well spent.

Simon Warren Andrews

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