My attempt at a long-form orchestral piece, based on themes from a piano piece written by a friend of mine 30 years ago, with his permission.

Someone asked me if it's an original composition or an arrangement. My friend sees it as my own composition, but based on his - much in the way that "Variations on a Theme of Paganini" is original to Rachmaninoff but based on Paganini's theme. 

The two major themes are sort of reimaginings of Wallace's, but - being much shorter than mine - both appear in their original forms as transitional material or as components of other sections. Another major theme of his is run through several variations, keys, and modes in the development section.

It's a frankly programmatic concert work in Sonata form. There is a funeral march, a pastorale, a depiction of time running out, a graveyard and church, and some "night music" (in the Bartok sense). It's a lot to pack into 12:30, but I tried very hard to make everything cohere into a single meditation on mortality.

Of possible interest: the "clock mechanism" is a musical imitation, using anvil and brake drum, of Big Ben's clockwork as heard from inside the tower.

Accompanying image © Copyright Trevor Littlewood and licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence. 

Score and recording © Copyright 2019 Wing Flanagan.

Elegia (from Nocturne in A-minor by Wallace)

I am a shabby, self-taught composer who likes to work in the modern classical genre. I play the keyboard very badly - especially in front of people.

Elegia (from Nocturne in A-minor by Wallace)

Wing Flanagan

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