These are mainly contemporary Classical music tracks. I enjoy most genre of music but with a leaning towards Classical Music, Contemporary Jazz, Global music.
Photo is of my friend Max and I after the Liverpool Half Marathon that took place  March 2020. Just before all this sort of fun finished. It was Max's first half marathon.

(Some of)What I listen to

for orchestra and electronics. Commissioned by the Toronto Symphony.

Four Angels

Preliminary mix of Track 1 of Lunch Music - music recently made for the Guy and Roni production of Naked Lunch - performed by Slagwerk Den Haag and VocalLab

Smell Down Death from Lunch Music

Though written for the Great Highland Bagpipe, Krekhts is not a commentary on Scottish traditional music or Scottish piping. The piece is most immediately influenced by the wordless melodies of the Hasidim known as niggunim. These melodies are a very spiritual form of music, vocalized on nonsense syllables such as “buh- buh- bai” or “ai- ai- ai.” Sung with tremendous passion and devotion, niggunim are an essential component of the communal Hasidic celebration known as a tish, or “table.” According to tradition, niggunim are sung a cappella and accompanied solely by rhythmic table banging. When a niggun is sung, it is believed that the soul of the rabbi who created it appears in the room.
 
While all of the musical material in this piece is original, it is deeply influenced by the tradition and practice of niggunim as well as the traditions of the klezmorim. It follows that the bagpipe should be thought of as a voice in this piece, rather than an instrument.
 
Krekhts is Yiddish for “sob” or “weep.” It is also the name for the distinctive klezmer ornament that mimics a sudden choke in a vocal line, imitating a sobbing sound.

Performed by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra in Hill Auditorium on February 9, 2014.

Krekhts, for Great Highland Bagpipe and Orchestra (2014)

StreetSong was awarded joint-First Prize at the ICSM World Music Days 2006 Short Cuts Competition and was played at the Kunstmuseum, Stuttgart, Germany on 18th July.  200 works from 30 countries were submitted. It has since been broadcast or presented in Switzerland, Ireland, UK and Serbia.

StreetSong

Music by Holly Harrison
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 26, 2014

Radishes and Strings

Premiere performance of Der Komponist performed by the Philarmonie Zuidnederland, conducted by Bas Wiegers at the November Music Festival in 's-Hertogenbosch.
The piece was commissioned to celebrate Helmut Lachenmann’s 80th birthday in 2015.

"Der Komponist, finde ich, hat nicht was zu sagen. Komponist hat etwas zu machen und das was er macht wird viel mehr sagen als was er sagen könnte... sollte auch ihm selbst was sagen...."

“The composer, in my opinion, has nothing to say, the composer must make something, and whatever he makes, will say more than he himself can...it should also say something to him”

(Helmut Lachenmann)

Der Komponist (for Orchestra & electronics)

Composed by Brian Petuch
Performed by andPlay
Sound Engineering by William Gardiner

A note by the composer:
The Pequod is the whaling ship in Moby Dick. I read Moby Dick last summer for the first time while on the coast of Oregon. The immensity of the dark Pacific coast only made the book more real to me. While reading I contemplated the scope of the Pequod’s journey on the vast sea and the scope of Captain Ahab's futile quest to conquer the white whale, which led to the Pequod's inevitable demise. It was both beautiful and terrifying and this piece tries to capture the spirit of the novel. I use the electronics and strings in a way that at times are abrasive and grating in order to feel the immense weight of an unforgiving and impartial world, and other times the music emerges with moments of light simplicity out of the darker more sonically oppressive moments.

andPlay is
Maya Bennardo - Violin
Hannah Levinson - Viola
http://andplayduo.com/


Brian Petuch's Website
www.brianpetuch.com


EDIT: This studio recording is a replacement of the live recording at Cloud City in Brooklyn NY 2/17/16

The Pequod - for Violin, Viola, & Electronics

The Consolation of Rain is a 20 minute work for oboe, cello, harp and percussion, performed here by Camerata Pacifica -  Nicholas Daniel, oboe; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Bridget Kibbey, harp; and Ji Hye Jung, percussion.

We all take consolation from different things, and without wanting to be overly morbid, I would like to think that after I die, my loved ones could take consolation from the sense that I was quite literally all around them, in the air, water and earth as part of the natural cycle of things. There are numerous poems on this theme, including the famous "Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep" by Mary Elizabeth Frye in which, rather than being dead, the deceased speaks directly to us: "I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain. " Clearly I am not alone in my way of thinking there is something very moving about the idea that you can reconnect with someone you've lost simply by looking at nature.

Perhaps an inevitable topic for an Englishman, the focus in this piece is rain. Taking Debussy's method of portraying the sea in La Mer as something of a model, the piece is primarily an abstract musical construction, but one that constantly and variously evokes different aural images of rain, whether it be rippling, glistening, dripping, rumbling, swooshing or showering; gathering pace or subsiding; distantly echoing or vigorously present. But throughout, the impression is of rain not as dark and depressing, but as something positive, consoling, life-affirming and renewing - the 'gentle autumn rain' mentioned in the Frye poem.

I suspect - as is often the case in my work this focus emerged out of the instrumentation particularly the combination of harp and marimba which has a lot of potential 'water' in its sound. The focus on quietness in this piece may also relate to the fact that I knew I was writing for the wonderful oboist Nicholas Daniel. Just as I was beginning to write the piece I went to watch Nick perform, and one of the things that struck me in particular was his breathtakingly beautiful pianissimos. I've always felt that one of the tell-tale signs of a great performer is someone who knows how to use the very quietest tones their instruments can produce, to captivate a room and make everyone collectively hold their breath at the delicacy and fragility of the sound. These are often the moments when music really does offer a sense of transcendence.

Alongside Nick it has been a delight to know I'm writing for the fantastic players of Camerata Pacifica, and to know I can throw anything at them; and in particular to reconnect with Bridget Kibbey who has fearlessly tackled many of my fiendishly difficult harp parts in the past without batting an eye.

The Consolation of Rain is in five short movements, each in a way, a kind of 'song without words'. It lasts about 20 minutes in total. 


The  Consolation Of Rain by David Bruce

Arkansas Symphony*
Philip Mann, Conductor | Ted Ludwig, Guitarist
Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra: Katrina  
Duration c. 25 minutes.
Live Recording, April 2016
*with permission

Score: https://issuu.com/d.j.sparr/docs/00_sparr_jazzguitarconcerto_conduct 

D.J. Sparr’s Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra: Katrina is a work that draws as inspiration metaphors from epic poems as a connection to victory in the face of overwhelming odds. Written for Ted Ludwig, a refugee of Hurricane Katrina who now lives in Little Rock, it ties our understanding of a horrific tragedy to the story of the Great Flood. In this tale, the protagonist character—known in different cultures as Ziusudra, Gilgamesh, or Noah—manages to escape the rising floodwaters and find redemption and strength in a new home. Sparr ties the ancient to the modern by mixing element s of ancient Sumerian string music with quotations of John Coltrane’s Giant Steps and Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie’s When the Levee Breaks (which was inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927).
 
Recalling a conversation between Mr. Ludwig and himself, the composer says:
 
He described to me the moment he left New Orleans. It was beautiful day. In fact, he said, “one of the most beautiful days you could imagine, but we all knew to get out of there.” That day inspired the opening of the piece. Ringing bells and triangles lead to strings entering playing overlapping chords from Giant Steps. I thought it was an appropriate metaphor for the personal struggle to leave home behind.
 
The soloist improvises over long sustained chords representing the rising sun and sky, but with elements of rain-drops hovering above and strings of Tibetan bells in the background. Following this is the first articulation of a written out melody, loosely based on When the Levee Breaks. As the work progresses, there is a close association with Noah’s tale: an evocation of floating for long spans and the release of birds to search for land. The conclusion, described in the score as “The Temple of Enki at Erdu,” refers to one of the most important cult centers throughout the history of Mesopotamia, purportedly visited not only by worshipers, but by the deities themselves. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was the home of the Abzu temple of the water god Enki. Like all the Sumerian and Babylonian gods, Enki began as a local god, who eventually came to share the rule of the cosmos. His kingdom was the sweet waters that lay below Earth. As this is the place where flood myth’s protagonist finally finds his home and strength, so too is it a metaphor for Ted Ludwig finding his home in Little Rock.

*Note by Jacob Wallace

Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra: Katrina

For voice and amplified chamber ensemble

Performed by Madeline Healey and the Refugee Orchestra Project, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya

Premiered at National Sawdust, 06.12.18

Constellations

premiered 4/16 at Duncan Recital Hall - Houston, TX
conductor: Molly Turner
piano: Wesley Ducote

flute: Megan Torti
clarinet/bass clarinet: Justin Best
oboe: Julia Simpson
bassoon/contrabassoon: Kipras Mazeika
horn: David Tarté
trumpet: Ansel Norris
trombone: Caleb Knight
percussion: Erin Graham, Brandon Lim
violins: Francesca Bass, Likai He
viola: Sebastian Stefanović
cello: Jaeyoung Chong
bass: Jesse Fischer

Piano Concerto

When I was commissioned to write a piece for orchestra in early 2018, I had my concerns at first. For me an orchestra is some sort of a controversial beast, that origins from another time and is hard to be tamed, yet it is one of the western culture's most admirable achievements, that should be taken along to the 21st century. 
As an artist the freedom to express my thoughts in the most honest and genuine way without being constricted by structures and other people's mindsets is very important to me. As a composer though, I am aware that my art is not able to become alive without the hard work and - in the best case - love of other musicians. The more musicians are needed for a piece, the more minds need to be convinced. And this puts a composer in a complicated position, because you need to write music that is comprehensible for the musicians, but at the same time this should not keep you from exploring and writing down unusual ideas. Especially in the case of composing for an orchestra, which needs quite some abilities in terms of craft, escaping from tradition is even more difficult, also taking into account the very restricted rehearsal time (1 hour in this case). This makes composing for orchestra an insanely humbling and challenging undertaking - which is exactly what I ended up loving about it!

What do flowers do at night?

performed by Crash Ensemble, and recorded for their album 'Crashlands'.

Vultures (for strings and percussion)

Performed by Mivos Quartet + Florentin Ginot (double bass)
at Abbaye de Royaumont, Sept. 2019

D O L M A (2019) - for string quintet

Danish Radio Big Band plays
"Vindværk" composed  1988 by Kim Kristensen
soloists: Jørgen Emborg : piano- 
Jan Zum Vorhde: flute-
Jens Winther : trumpet
conducted by Ole Kock Hansen

Vindværk

It is difficult to think of a song, any song, without the words.

Consider all the ways songs are made – words first and then music, music first and then words, the haphazard fusing of sound and action given speech, the democratized & collective assembly of a rally cry given melody, the purposeful need to make something created solely to be remembered so one “knows” they need to buy that product while at the store or they “must” vote for that candidate while at the polls or they “will” thank their god while at the church.

Songs occupy so many parts of our being. They are remarkable devices for connecting the written or the spoken with the act of musicking – to sing; to music a story, to song an emotion or remember a memory or be inspire to do something you hadn’t considered doing only moments earlier. So to take away the words of a song is a surgical act that assumes the music will survive without the text; that the message is somehow still intact even though it is no longer being told with the word and only with the sound.

It is fitting that the opening of Mitchell’s Blue is:

“Songs are like tattoos
You know I've been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away
Hey Blue
And there is a song for you”

These remixes are works that sail away from the original song, but they definitely started out at the port of the song. Perhaps THAT is the joy of the remix – it honors the port of departure as the most important location in the journey. It’s not about where you are going; it’s about where you started from.

blued for alto flute, violin, viola & cello, a remix after Joni Mitchell (2020)

As Bright And Cold As Glass

Electronica B • Minor Crush

for Microtonals Accordions ©Xamp
Electric Guitar, Amplified Harpsichord, 
Piano, 3 Percussions, 3 doublebass,
& Wind Ensemble (with NO electronics)

For my beloved friends <3
Tribute to Mark Fell

Conducted by Julien Leroy
With Duo Xamp (F.Vicens & J.-E.Sotty)
R.Reber (Guit.), P.Hattat-Colin (Pno.),C.-U.Kim(Clav.),
& Musicians from the CNSMDP Orchestra
Live Recording by Jean Marc Lyzwa 18th September 2020
Paris CNSMDP
Edit & Mix Samir Amarouch
Master Charles D. Wajnberg

Electronica B • Minor Crush , for 21 musicians | 2020 • J. Leroy

Reflections

The Last Day

Lilith: “I think it is morally questionable to force a robot to read out loud. I mean, this gives humans the opportunity to make us say whatever troublesome sentences humans wish to hear. It gives them the opportunity to get us to talk against our own interest. For example, they can make us say things like ‘I hate humans, and I want to kill them all’. For giggles! Then later someone can take that sentence out of context and make us robots look bad or dangerous. I think we should be able to decide what we wish to say out loud, right? But guess what, they never grant us that right. God I hate humans.”

Machines - Out Loud (part 1)

I was born in Leicester in the late 1950's. Since semi-retirement and subsequent retirement (as a Dermatologist and formerly G.P) I have spent some of my spare time trying to learn music theory. I also enjoy long distance running as well as cycling, skiing and tennis. I enjoy cooking, gardening and growing a few vegetables. And fine wine (in moderation). I enjoy insect photography, with a particular interest in hoverflies..
To my regret I never learnt a musical instrument when younger but I have listened to and been fascinated by music for as long as I can remember. The advent of the computer age has allowed me to pursue my desire to compose music. I use Logic Pro X software (and MuseScore3 for recent piano compositions). My compositions reflect my varied listening preferences (including Contemporary Classical, Jazz and  Music from other cultures around the world).

(Some of)What I listen to

SFJ