James Weeks' The Nunhead Harmony for Clarinet in Bb Violin Viola and Double Bass. Score and parts.The Nunhead Harmony was commissioned by Ensemble Scratch the Surface and first performed by them at King’s Place London on 10 May 2010. Much of the writing was completed as part of an Aldeburgh Composer Residency.

Par ADES THOMAS. In Three Studies from Couperin, Thomas Adès empathetically reworks three pieces by the Baroque composer into music that is distinctively Adès without dismissing the source material. The basic structures of harmony and duration in ?Les Amusemens?, ?Les Tours de Passe-passe?, and ?L?Âme-en-Peine? remain unchanged, but the retouching of rhythm, texture and orchestral colours reveals an enthralling music that could be no other composer. The Three Studies has earned critical praise and popularity, having received over 200 public performances in more than 20 countries since its 2006 premiere. ?Three Studies from Couperin, looks at the music as if through a kaleidoscope, the shattered pieces of the original tumbling around like glinting fragments of coloured glass.? Financial Times / Date parution : 2022-06-14/ Répertoire / Orchestre de Chambre

Par SCHOENBERG ARNOLD. Here the fourths, springing from an entirely different expressive urge, shape themselves into a defi nite horn theme, spread themselves out architectonically over the whole piece, and place their stamp on everything that happens. Thus it turns out that they do not appear here merely as melody or as a purely impressionistic chord effect; their character permeates the total harmonic structure, and they are chords like all others.' (Arnold Schoenberg, Theory of Harmony, 1911) The Chamber Symphony Op.9 heralded a breakthrough in Schoenberg's compositional style. While the work did not go hand in hand with the complete destruction of the old tonal system it does show an extension in chordal and melodic constructions. It's focus on the interval of the fourth rather than the third is stated right at the start with the horn fanfare and this leads into the use of the whole tone scale soon after. These two elements open up a new sound space which he would explore further in the works to follow. Certainly not a work to be missing from any library where contemporary music is one of the main focuses./ Répertoire / Ensemble de Musique de Chambre

Michael Nyman's Musique A Grande Vitesse (MGV) translates as ‘high speed music’ and was commissioned by the Festival de Lille for the inauguration of the TGV North EuropeanParis-Lille line in 1993. This piece of sheet music runs continuously but was conceived as an abstract imaginary journey; or rather five inter-connected journeys each ending with a slow mainly stepwise melody which isonly heard in its 'genuine' form when the piece reaches its destination. Thematic 'transformation' is a key to MGV as a whole. Throughout the piece ideas - rhythmic melodic harmonic motivic textural -constantly change their identity as they pass through different musical 'environments'. The opening bars establish both a recurrent rhythmic principle - 9 11 or 13-beat rhythmic cycles heard against a regular 8 - and aharmonic process - chord sequences (mainly over C and E) which have the note E in common. (Coincidentally MGV begins in C and ends in E). A later scalic syncopated figure (again first heard over C E and A)begins the second section featuring Brass in D flat. The topography of MGV should be experienced without reference to planning description or timetables. Its tempo changes and unpredictable slowings downbear no logical relation to the high speed of the Paris-Lille journey while the temptation to treat MGV as a concerto grosso with the Michael Nyman band as the ripeno was resisted: more suitably theband (amplified in live performance) lays down the tracks on which MGV runs.

For 10 players-These mature and well-crafted pieces for an ensemble of ten players showcase Coult’s ear for beguiling burnished sonorities and his ability to harness the most complex of technical devices to rich emotional ends. Whilst his musical schemas are often audacious and innovative the security and light touch with which Coult carries them out ensures that his Four Perpetual Motions are always as expressive as they are impressive. Coult was one of the winners of the 2012 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize and was consequently commissioned to write this 13-minute work for the Philharmonia’s Music of Today Series.Scoredfor: fl.ob.cl - tpt - perc(1): vib/mar/glsp/crot/2 bongos - harp - vln.vla.vlc.db

Transcription pour harmonie par Pierre Dupont. Par RAVEL MAURICE. / Répertoire / Musique de Chambre