Paul Max Edlin at Composers Edition

New Horizons - Concerto for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra (2022)
Dedicated to John Wallace CBE with the hugest gratitude and admiration and warmest affection
Solo trumpet in C, doubling piccolo trumpet and flugelhorn
Flute, 2 Oboes (Oboe 1 doubling cor anglais), Clarinet in Bb, Bassoon, 2 Horns, 1 Trumpet (doubling piccolo trumpet), Percussion, Strings

This work began its life as a short piece commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the London Chamber Orchestra as it looked toward new horizons.  There was so much yet to explore in that original short piece 'A New Horizon' that I took it further, and this concerto, 'New Horizons', is the result.  It was also composed at a time when new horizons beckoned personally.

© Paul Max Edlin 2022

This electronically created version is made for study purposes.

New Horizons - Concerto for Trumpet and Chamber Orchestra (2022)

The Illusionist's Magic Box - for piano, toy piano and electronics (2024)

A Chain of Wonders

2010 (appx 8 mins)
1,1,1,1 – 1,1,1 – perc, pno, – 1,1,1,1,1 
Programme note: A Chain of Wonders takes the listener on an imaginary tour of special and exotic places, usually in nocturnal settings. The very opening borrows from an earlier piece of mine called The Sphinx at Night, itself inspired from an evocative watercolour of the famous Egyptian sphinx under a canopy of stars by Edwardian artist Walter Tyndale. Thereafter, we venture into a set of places that exist only in the mind’s eye. There are certainly places that generate excitement, menace and fear, there are places of gentle solitude, places that allude to grandeur and others of turmoil and finally a place that is surely hot and close in atmosphere and climate, welcoming and comforting, and a place where one would be happy to stay. The piece is short – no longer than some ten minutes. © Paul Max Edlin 2010
This recording is of a live performance given by Cantus Ansambl.

A Chain Of Wonders (2010) - Cantus Ansambl

1985 version
7 trumpets (piccolo, natural, Eb, Bb, bass tpts, flugelhorn), perc, piano, organ.
Commissioned by John Wallace and the Wallace Collection,
Won IX Internazionale Premio Ancona 

2014 version 
7 trumpets (piccolo, natural, Eb, Bb, bass trumpets, flugelhorn), perc., piano, 2 cellos, 3 double basses.  
New version made especially for RNCM ‘After the Silence… Music in the Shadow of War’ 

Programme Note: Revelation 9:1-11: “Then the Fifth Trumpet angel sounded and I saw a star having fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree; but only those men who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads. And they were not authorized to kill them, but to torment them for five months: and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death, and will not find it; and they will desire to die, and death will flee from them. The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. And they had breastplates, like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek his name is Apollo. One woe is past. Behold, two more woes are coming hereafter”.  

When John Wallace formed the Wallace Collection, he brought together the finest trumpet players in the United Kingdom.  Legendary names of the past such as John Wilbraham and David Mason joined forces with the finest up-and-coming players such as Mark Bennett and Bob Farley.  Their first concert was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and this work was composed for that event..  I wanted to create a work that would provoke thought as well as being a demonstration of virtuosity. The biblical story of the seven trumpets of the apocalypse from The Book of Revelation lended itself to this instrumentation as well as my intention.  Here was an allegory that responds to the results of man’s inhumanity to man and his environment spawning immeasurable suffering and torment.  The parallels with the horrors of war need no elaboration. ‘The Fifth Trumpet’ describes an initial vision of Heaven from which the Fifth Angel blows his trumpet. A star falls from heaven creating an earthly abyss from which smoke pours and the locusts with scorpion stings inflict months of agony on mankind who seek the solace of death.  But death evades them.  The programmatic intent of the story should be apparent in the clearly defined sections of the piece.  A range of trumpets are used: piccolo trumpets, natural trumpets in old pitch keys, Eb, Bb and bass trumpets.  Together with these are percussion, piano and either organ (as in the 1985 original score) or 2 ‘cellos and 3 basses (as in this 2014 revision).  The trumpet writing pushes the instruments to extreme limits, not least the 5th trumpet part, which has specific solo passages and which was written for John Wallace. In the 2014 revision, several changes were made: the organ part has been reworked for lower strings and there has been some rationalising of barring and some minor simplification of the actual instrumental parts.  This live recording is of the first (original) version, was made in the mid 1980s, and is conducted by John Wallace.   © Edlin 2014

The Fifth Trumpet (1985)

Frida Sketches 						
for string quartet 
by Paul Max Edlin

Programme Note:
The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo had an extraordinary life.  Born in 1907, she died at middle age in 1954.  At six she developed polio and a terrifying bus accident in her teens meant that she suffered life-long physical and health problems.  She married the Mexican artist and muralist Diego Rivera, who was twenty years her senior.  They had a tempestuous marriage, divorced and remarried.  No doubt due to her illness and her confinement to bed or being strapped in a body cast, Frida became self obsessed and made many extraordinary self-portraits.  These self-portraits tell us as much about Mexican culture, religion and symbolism, about the tragedy of the country at that time, its politics and its history as they do about Frida and her love-hate relationship with Diego.  Frida also kept a diary, and that is yet another fascinating glimpse into this surreal artist’s equally surreal world.

As a composer who has been surrounded by visual art all my life and for whom surrealist painting is particularly relevant, Frida Kahlo’s work excites me.  Furthermore, I have a love for symbolism in music and enjoy transferring extra-musical ideas into music itself – thus a piece becomes even more than its apparent surface.  A piece ‘becomes’ what it is because of what inspires it and what drives it.  Using ciphers, Frida’s name, the names of those who were around her, the name of her home, etc all ‘create’ the musical notes.  The diary inspires the musical structure – especially the passages which are ‘stream-of-consciousness’ that are actually highly poetic and highly rigorous in design.  Finally, the music of Lotti’s ‘Crucifixus’ permeates passages, and so it should as this is music that alludes to Frida’s world and her own crucifixion as a result of that tragic accident.

Frida Sketches is a sketch about the woman and her world, and it is a starting point for me to track a new path.  The work was written for the Arditti Quartet to whom it is dedicated.  

This performance, by the Arditti Quartet, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 3rd June 2012.

© Paul Max Edlin 2012 

Frida Sketches (2012) - Arditti Quartet

Cello Concerto
2006 (appx. 24’)
solo cello
1(+ alt.fl).1.1.1 - 1.1.1.0, - hp, perc, - 5vv, 2vla, 1vc, 1db

Programme note:
Don continues a theme of symbolism that permeates and guides so many of my compositions.  In this instance it explores certain moral issues in a somewhat enigmatic way, while exploiting the distinct nature of the concerto medium. Indeed it is the master/servant relationship, in which the soloist both guides and follows those around it, that stimulates much of the musical argument.  The use of a semi-solo bassoon part acts as a ‘doppelganger’ as well as allowing for that ‘master/servant’ relationship to be explored (hence the title Don as in Don Giovanni and Don Quixote, etc.)  The ‘solo role’ in any concerto has dramatic connotations, but it must reach beyond ‘pure theatre’ even if it embraces it.  This cello part is hugely virtuosic, as are many of the passages the other instrumentalists have to play.

The harmonic impetus stems from the opening chord to the central movement of Bartok’s fourth string quartet – a chord built up of two whole-tone triads which together form a diatonic hexachord.  This particular chord, composer and quartet are important to me.  There is an inherent symmetry of Bartok’s chord – and the way in which it is expanded as the movement progresses.  My work expands it, and symmetrically too, but delves into the world of microtones and harmonies that allude to other cultures.  Issues of ‘convergence’ and ‘divergence’ form the basis of the concerto, with the principals of two differing groups (cello and bassoon) responding to the harmonic realms established by each other.  While the cello continually sets the pace, its own musical material evolves and adapts as a result of varying ‘influences’ from others.  Political issues can be alluded to, of course. Not least in the suggestion that interaction of seeming opposites can share common ground through debate.  Bartok’s own music is particularly apposite to use in this way.  The renowned musicologist Theodore Adorno pointed out that Bartok’s music ‘spans the gulf between, on the one hand, the ahistorical, epic ‘natural community of the pre-industrial world where the ‘individual’ is represented by the hero… and, on the other hand, the highly industrialised societies of the modern world, within which the individual … exists in a state of alienation’.  © Paul Max Edlin 2007

The solo cellist on this recording is Gabriella Swallow



Don - a Cello Concerto (2006) - Gabriella Swallow (cello)

2011 (approximate duration of all three movements: 13’)
for flute, violin, viola, cello and piano 

The great Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez, wrote his surreal novella 'The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and her Souless Grandmother' in 1978.  Eréndira Dances captures the essence of this story.  It takes music from a never completed opera – the rights proved impossible to acquire.
In the first of the three dances, the two main characters of the drama, Eréndira and her Grandmother, are introduced, while the second dance evokes aspects of Eréndira's brief freedom from the tyranny of her grandmother, who has forced her into prostitution.   Dance 3 reveals two more snapshots of the last part of Eréndira’s story, now that she is back in the clutches of her Grandmother having been snatched back from the Mission. In the first snapshot, Eréndira is alone at night when her young lover, Ulises, creeps into her tent and they make love as the Grandmother sleeps, burbling away in her usual manner. The Grandmother’s frenetic burblings, now depicted by the violin and finally the viola, are coming to an end as she has been poisoned and stabbed repeatedly by Ulises. When she is finally dead, Eréndira runs away leaving Ulises by the side of the Grandmother’s whale-like body. © Paul Max Edlin 2011

This recording was made at the world premiere in May 2011, given by the London Sinfonietta.  Grateful thanks to the London Sinfonietta for giving permission for this movement to be made available on Soundcloud.

Eréndira Dance No 3 (2011) Alone, and even after love and death, she runs away) London Sinfonietta

2011 (approximate duration of all three movements: 13’)
flute, violin, viola, cello and piano Programme note: The great Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez, wrote his surreal novella The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and her Soulless Grandmother in 1978. Eréndira Dances captures the essence of this story. It takes music from an never completed opera – the rights proved impossible to acquire.
In the first of the three dances, the two main characters, Eréndira and her Grandmother, and their surreal circumstances are introduced. The second dance reveals snapshots of Eréndira’s now troubled life. Time has moved on a pace and the havoc caused by the wind of misfortune has seen the Grandmother’s home burned to the ground, and Eréndira has been forced into prostitution to pay off her debts. She will be a prostitute for years to come, and the Grandmother has made Eréndira the most famous and busy prostitute in all of South America. By chance, a handsome and innocent young man, Ulises, has met Eréndira and fallen in love with her. They make love in Eréndira’s tent. Their relationship has far to go. In the meantime, the Mission has made an attempt to rescue Eréndira from the wicked Grandmother. She finds herself at peace in the mission and hears the soft music of Bach played on a clavichord. She is free from her terrible world at last.  © Paul Max Edlin 2011

This recording was made at the world premiere in May 2011, given by the London Sinfonietta. Grateful thanks to the London Sinfonietta for giving permission for this movement to be made available on Soundcloud.

Eréndira Dance No 2 (2011) Eréndira's tormented pleasure & the passion of Bach  - London Sinfonietta

2009 
Ô saisons, ô châteaux
I - Ô saisons, ô châteaux (O seasons, o chateaux…)
II - Conneries (Stupidities)
III - Veillées (Vigils)
for Soprano, String Quartet and Electronic keyboards
To Poems by Arthur Rimbaud

The poetry of Arthur Rimbaud has long intrigued me, and this is not the first time I’ve set his poems. The innate symbolism that permeates every sentence is manna from heaven to me – as my own music is steeped in symbolism. Ô saisons, ô châteaux sets Rimbaud’s famous poem of the same name as well as a nonsense poem and another from his equally well-known Illuminations. 
As an aside, the sound of the glass harmonica has always fascinated me ever since I heard a recording of Mozart’s famous Adagio and Rondo. There is an inevitable beguiling enchantment this extraordinary instrument creates. However, this instrument is seriously limited in what it can do and it takes something extra to make it ‘virtuoso’. Fortunately, the use of modern day sound sampling means that one can create a ‘virtual’ virtuoso glass harmonica. The pianist plays a keyboard which now sounds like a vast instrument that Mozart would surely have adored!
The first song alludes to feelings of nostalgia and life changes, yet inhabits a labyrinthine maze where one is constantly trying to discover the truth. The music is derived from Rameau’s opera Castor and Pollux (all about the Gemini twins). It is the funeral music, where one twin knows he has to live without the other – and inevitably gains strength from it. Hence the baroque nature of the music. The text of the second setting of nonsense verse reveals an essential element: the inevitable ridiculousness that people apply to ‘names’. This song is my homage to those inspiring masters. The final song is all about the importance and relevance of friendship above all things, and is thus set simply and directly. 
© Paul Max Edlin 2009

This is a live recording of the world premiere given in April 2009 by the soprano Olga Pasichnyk with the Silesian Quartet and Maciej Grzybowski. Grateful thanks to Olga Pasichnyk for granting permission to make this recording available on Soundcloud.

Ô saisons, ô châteaux (2009) - Complete Work - Olga Pasichnyk (soprano)

...and the Body of Transformations (2018)
Magnetic Resonator Piano: Rolf Hind

Recorded by Ken Peers, July 2019

The temple complex of Preah Khan is part of the vast area more commonly referred to as ‘Angkor’ in Cambodia. It was built by Jayavarman VII. An obsession with Angkor began thirty years ago and I had written a series of large-scale works based on its architectural designs, as well as encrypting the pieces with lots of relative information. However, it was not until 2017 that I actually visited Cambodia and saw the ancient city ‘in person’.

I felt a need to return ‘musically’ to Angkor and to respond to what I had seen. Of all the extraordinary sights, Preah Khan left a new and immensely strong impression. Books generally refer to the unique two-storey pavilion with its almost Romanesque columns, no doubt because they initially appear more ‘European’. However, there is nothing remotely of the ‘West’, and its neighbouring ‘Hall of Dancers’ reveals some of the most exquisite bas reliefs in all of Angkor. Similarly, the mix of man made and natural architecture is exemplified by the way in which trees and buildings now entwine, as if purposefully juxtaposed by a surrealist artist. I know that I will never forget standing in what still seems like a surreal and other worldly part of the complex, surrounded by mysterious buildings encrusted in fine and ornate bas reliefs. That was a literal ‘dream’ in a day’s reality.

The piano is an instrument we believe we know fully. Yet there are aspects and sonorities of the piano yet to be discovered. There is another hidden instrument. Andrew McPherson’s Magnetic Resonator Piano adds a complex set of magnets to the strings of the conventional grand piano, which, through clever manipulation, creates totally natural new sonorities. Instead of having the strings ‘struck’ by hammers, these strings aurally ‘glow’ in response to magnets that pull at them and cause them to vibrate. And through further clever manipulation, they can be made to vibrate in certain ways to achieve a series of new and unexpected sonorities. Some of these sonorities sound ‘electronic’, but they are absolutely not. All are entirely natural – and therefore they achieve an ever-changing quality of tone and colour. Exact repetition is impossible.

The Magnetic Resonator Piano (MRP) exemplifies a mix of familiar and unknown, it captures a seeming ‘other’ world, a surreal quality that I adore, and it beguiles through its completely natural beauty of tone. It seemed right to try to evoke a new response to Angkor through this deeply special instrument.

The curious thing I found was that while my music had moved on, I returned to the same schemes of creating ciphers and designing musical structures I had adopted many years ago. I realised that these compositional tools were ‘within’ my natural way of thinking. The fact that I had now seen Angkor in reality, as opposed to through illustrated books, ultimately made little actual difference to the creative spur the inspiration ignited. Yet there is a difference, which I can acknowledge. To attempt to recreate a ground plan, a physical structure that can be viewed from an infinite number of angles, plus the heady atmosphere of a moment in time is impossible. All we can ever do is evoke a perceived mystery and report aspects of an inspiration.

The opening lines on Preah Khan's stele translate as "The Lord (bhagaván) is divided, for his body is the Body of the Law, the Body of Enjoyment, and the Body of Transformations". From here comes the title of this work, which is ultimately all about transformations.

Grateful thanks to Andrew McPherson and James Doherty for their help in the preparation of this work for MRP, and to Rolf Hind whose exemplary pianism brought it to life.

The photographic image of Preah Khan was taken by the composer.

For a film version of the 1st performance, please visit: youtu.be/qD3M0idiRDY

© Paul Max Edlin 2018

...and the body of transformations (2018) - Rolf Hind (magnetic resonator piano)

...and of transformations (2018)
for large chamber ensemble
(Alto Flute [doubling Piccolo and Bass Flute], Oboe, Clarinet [doubling Bass Clarinet], Bassoon, 2 Horns, Trombone, Percussion, Harp, Guitar, Celeste, 2 Violins, Viola, 'Cello, Double Bass)

Programme Note:
The temple complex of Preah Khan is part of the vast area known as ‘Angkor’ in Cambodia. Much information can be found about the temple complex of Preah Khan, built by the exceptional God King Jayavarman VII. The history of the ancient Khmer civilisation, and the surreal, mysterious and magnificent temples of Angkor itself, have long caught my imagination. In this regard, I had written a series of large-scale works based on the architectural designs as well as encrypting the pieces with a set of relative information. Angkor, in effect, had become an obsessional source of extra-musical inspiration. However, it was not until 2017 that I actually visited Cambodia and saw ‘in person’ these wondrous temples. It was as if I was visiting a number of pen friends. I knew every temple so well, even if I had never seen them before ‘in the flesh’.

I felt a need to return ‘musically’ to Angkor and to respond to what I had seen. Of all the extraordinary sights, Preah Khan left a new and immensely strong impression. This was a place I knew about, but its specialness had never been made quite so clear. Books generally refer to the unique two-storey pavilion with its almost Romanesque columns, no doubt because they initially appear more ‘European’. However, there is nothing remotely of the ‘West’, and its neighbouring ‘Hall of Dancers’ bears some of the most exquisite bas reliefs in all of Angkor. Similarly, the mix of man made and now ‘natural’ architecture is exemplified by the way in which trees and buildings entwine, as if purposefully juxtaposed by a surrealist artist. I know that I will never forget standing in what still seems like a surreal and other worldly part of the complex, surrounded by mysterious buildings encrusted in fine and ornate bas reliefs. That was a literal ‘dream’ in a day’s reality. The mix of man and nature is surreal, for sure.

The curious thing I found was that while my music had moved on, I returned to the same schemes of creating ciphers and designing musical structures I had adopted twenty to thirty years ago. I realised that these compositional tools were ‘within’ my natural way of thinking. The fact that I had now seen Angkor in reality, as opposed to through illustrated books, ultimately made little actual difference to the creative spur the inspiration ignited. Yet there is a difference, which I can acknowledge. To attempt to recreate a ground plan, a physical structure that can be viewed from an infinite number of angles, through the necessary medium of a single musical pathway, plus the heady atmosphere of a moment in time is impossible. All we can ever do is evoke a perceived mystery or atmosphere and ‘report’ aspects of an inspiration.

Preah Khan has a famous stele with inscriptions that tell of the gods it invokes, the context of the temple and its relationship with the God King. The opening lines translate as "The Lord (bhagaván) is divided, for his body is the Body of the Law, the Body of Enjoyment, and the Body of Transformations". From here evolves the title of this work, which is ultimately all about transformations.

This sound version is for reference and was created using Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra Professional.

© Paul Max Edlin 2018

The photograph of Preah Khan was taken by the composer in 2017

...and of transformations (2018)

Gone in 60 Seconds
For solo trumpet
Commissioned by Oxford Festival of the Arts

Brendan Ball - trumpet

Paul Max Edlin at Composers Edition

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