Richard Rodney Bennett: After Syrinx I: Oboe: Instrumental Work

The Nash Ensemble commissioned Richard Rodney Bennett to write Sonata After Syrinx for Flute Viola and Harp. The work was inspired by Debussy's Syrinx for Solo Flute and the score directs that Sonata After Syrinx should always be preceded by a performance of the Debussy work. Composer performer and arranger Richard Rodney Bennett was internationally respected for his serious music and many award-winning film scores (Murder on the Orient Express Nicholas and Alexandra) as well as his works for children and his religious pieces. In addition this markedly versatile musician frequently performed as a jazz pianist. On his move to the United States the two sponsors for hisgreen card (work permit) were Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.

After Syrinx is based on Claude Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute (1913). Written for William Moersch who gave the first performance on 21 May 1984.

The text of Susanni is a translation of Martin Luther’s hymn of 1535 Vom Himmel hoch. The music is based loosely upon the well-known chorale melody which at times is quoted in full in both voices and organ. Except where indicated singers should adopt a legato style especially in the repeated quaver patterns. In the bars which appear to be in compound time conductors should beat in crotchets.An inspiring selection of new works from a range of contemporary composers the Novello New Choral Series offers pieces for all types of choirs including sacred and secular works from simple four-part settings to more expansive yetaccessible repertoire in an exciting variety of styles. Bill Ives has spent his life in choral music as a singer conductor teacher and composer (writing as Grayston Ives). He was a chorister at Ely Cathedral and later studied music at Cambridge taking composition lessons with Richard Rodney Bennett. After Cambridge he sang in Guildford Cathedral Choir before joining the King’s Singers with whom he recorded and performed worldwide.For eighteen years he directed the Choir of Magdalen College Oxford. During his tenure the choir earned a Grammy nomination for a disc of music by Orlando Gibbons and gave the première of Paul McCartney’s Ecce Cor Meum written especially for them. In 2008 his work as a composer and conductor of church music was recognised with the award of a Lambeth DMus and a Fellowship of the Royal School of Church Music.

Good work for examinations and recitals by an important British composer. Duration c.6'. AMEB (Australian Syllabus) 2004. Programme notes as follows:Lennox Berkeley was born in 1903 and died in 1989. After reading modern languages at Oxford he had no intention of becoming a composer until he met Ravel in 1926 who encouraged him to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. He stayed in Paris until 1932 developing his own musical language. In 1936 after the death of his mother he went to Barcelona for the International Society for Contemporary Music festival where he met Benjamin Britten. The two lived together at Snape in Suffolk for a while until the outbreak ofwar before Berkeley moved back to London to work for the BBC. Here he met his future wife Freda Bernstein. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1946 until 1968 where his pupils included Richard Rodney Bennett Nicholas Maw and John Tavener among others. He was knighted in 1974. In early February 1971 I was playing in a concert at St. John's Smith Square London then only relatively recently restored as a superb venue for music. The programme which I believe was being broadcast included Berkeley's Serenade Op.12. It was a work I had always enjoyed playing and was standard string orchestra repertoire at the time. There was initially no platform at St. John's and so the audience sat virtually on top of the performers. So close were they on this occasion that I had to ask for a little more room in order to play. At the end of the piece the orchestra acknowledged the applause and the gentleman who I had all but practically decapitated with my over-enthusiastic playing stood up and took a bow. I had been almost playing in Lennox Berkeley's lap! The opportunity was too good to miss and I wasted little time in introducing myself. Mr Berkeley said that he had been fascinated by my playing and asked me to write to him about a possible commission.This I did on 6 February mentioning that