CECILIA Mcdowall COLOUR of BLOSSOMS TRIO DERAZEY Cavatina at Midnight (2008) Encloses, at Its Piano with Its Many Strings’
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CECILIA McDOWALL COLOUR OF BLOSSOMS TRIO DERAZEY Cavatina at Midnight (2008) encloses, at its piano with its many strings’. Scriabin associated Strange violin, are you following me? was written composer, William Bolcom. The initial centre, a reference to the opening of the sublime colour with all the keys, though some scepticism in aid of Cancerkin and first performed by Peter impetus came from a powerful black and white Cavatina from Beethoven’s String Quartet, has been levelled at the essential nature of his Fisher and Peter Hewitt. photograph of the New York skyline taken in the Op 130. Shapes and shades of the long lyrical synaesthesia, notably from Rachmaninov. 1940s and is largely based on four notes derived line are hinted at throughout the work. Cavatina I took Kandinsky’s Yellow-Red-Blue as my This short work for solo violin is calledAnaphora from the piano rag, Solace, by Scott Joplin. There at Midnight, commissioned by the CAVATINA starting point. He describes ‘earthly’ yellow as (1998), meaning a phrase repeated (from the is a mix of the drive and dynamism of this city Chamber Music Trust, also brings together standing for firmness, linear ‘heavenly blue’, Greek, literally, ‘referring back’ or ‘carrying up’). with hints of Joplin’s rag introducing a note of songs of another kind, two allusions to the floating gracefully, and the colour red imbued It is also the name given to the middle section nostalgia and reflection. nightingale; one is drawn from Keats’ poem, Ode with heavier, intuitive ideas. I have structured of the Mass which begins with the Sanctus; the to a Nightingale and the other from the BBC’s the piece on Scriabin’s key/colour scheme of plainchant derived from the Vatican Sanctus Colour of Blossoms (2009) is inspired by the first ever outside broadcast in 1924, in which yellow (D), red (C) and blue (F#). The opening provides the basis for Anaphora. Anaphora was 13th-century Japanese account, Tale of the the cellist, Beatrice Harrison, played well-known ‘hammer’ section centres around D, dancing written for and first performed by Charles Mutter. Heike, which centres on the emptiness of war. songs in nocturnal duet with a nightingale in a toccata which leads to a three chord falling The trio draws on the delicate imagery from the her garden. In the trio the violin takes an agile motif, which pervades the piece. This is followed Falling Angels (2008), a meditation for cello opening passage; ‘The bell of the Gion monastery role, suggestive of birdsong, supported by the by a warmly expressive passage revolving around and piano, draws inspiration from the book The echoes slowly, warning that all is vanity. The lyricism of the cello. As I was writing the piece C which in turn leads to the ‘cool romanticism’ City of Falling Angels in which the writer, John colour of blossoms symbolizes the truth, that a blackbird sang at my window, not its beautiful, of the F# section. With a return of the opening Berendt, gives a richly atmospheric portrayal of the prosperous will inevitably decline and that mellifluous evensong but an insistent F sharp material the work climaxes on the three chords Venice where decay and disintegration are part the proud will fall in no time like a dream on which somehow found its way into the texture. in the coda, all now clearly diatonic. The closing of the allure. The rhythm of the lagoon, the a spring night’. Japanese temple gongs, some bars bring together a superimposition of all three gentle tides and waves of the Adriatic, frame huge and often hung in high places so the sound Colour is the Keyboard (2007) was commission- chords melting into stillness. the city like the rhythm of breathing. Extended can reverberate across the valley, are associated ed by Helen Reid to focus on synaesthesia, melodies contrast with fragmented, falling with peace. This trio is punctuated by gong-like the crossing over of the senses, and provided Strange violin, are you following me? (2008) phrases, sometimes ghostly, in this reflection on sonorities in the piano; the violin and cello a fascinating opportunity to explore lines of is inspired by the evocative, nocturnal poem, a beautiful city. The title was suggested by the etch lyrical lines against this darker resonance, parallel thinking between artist and composer; Der Nachbar (The Neighbour), by the German sign ‘Beware of falling angels’ which was posted opening into a fast, impassioned central section, in this case two Russian synaesthetes, Kandinsky poet, Rainer Maria Rilke. Its eerie, elegiac mood outside the Santa Maria della Salute Church in folding back into quietness. It was commissioned and Scriabin. Kandinsky, an accomplished pervades the dark, meditative duo in which the 1970s before the marble angels were restored. and first performed by the English Piano Trio. cellist, had strong associations with colour extended melodic lines intertwine between It was commissioned by Gemma Rosefield and and sound, often using music as a structural instruments, seemingly in pursuit of each other. first performed by her with pianist, Nicola Eimer. I wrote Exaudi (2013) as a gift to celebrate the framework, saying that, for him, colour was Intensely lyrical, there is a constant pulse that 70th birthday of a friend, Helen Sills; the piece an aural experience. He wrote, ‘colour is the beats a course throughout the work, a motive Shades of Solace (1998) was written for a festival revolves around her initials, H (B) and S (Es). As keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the drawn from an earlier work, The Night Trumpeter. featuring ragtime music by the American an acknowledgement to her profound scholarship, Page 1 Page 2 particularly in relation to Stravinsky and Time, I inventing mechanical instruments and designed Cecilia McDowall has been described by wove allusions to works by Stravinsky into the an early ‘bugging’ device which was shaped like the International Record Review as having ‘a texture, some obvious, others perhaps less so. The a huge trumpet structured on the Fibonacci communicative gift’. Often inspired by extra- title comes from the first word sung by the chorus sequence. This trumpet ‘ear’ was secreted musical influences, her writing combines a in Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. between walls where court conversation could rhythmic vitality with expressive lyricism. Her be monitored in seclusion. In my imaginings music is performed worldwide, and she has won The Night Trumpeter (2004). Both movements this aural instrument might have produced many awards and been eight times short-listed reach for historical connections between different diverse results, from sweeping reverberation to a for the British Composer Awards; in 2014 she uses, in the 16th Century, of the trumpet as a perpetuum mobile of chatter. The trumpet opens won the British Composer Award for Choral conveyor of information. Inspiration for the the second movement (Kircher’s Ear) with the bell Music with Night Flight. Important commissions opening movement (The power of dreams) is drawn of the instrument inside the piano, to exaggerate include pieces for the BBC Singers (When Time from Rose Tremain’s book, Music and Silence. the resonance of the harmonics. After this, all is Broke), Westminster Cathedral Choir (Adore te She tells us that the Duchess of Mecklenburg manner of musical exchanges follow. Originally devote), London Mozart Players (Rain, Steam and hired a night trumpeter to stand guard over her commissioned as a trumpet and piano work by Speed), and a joint commission from the City of sleeping grandson, the future King of Denmark, Paul Archibald and Kathron Sturrock and later London Sinfonia and the Scott Polar Research Christian IV. If the baby awoke the trumpeter arranged for the Fibonacci Chamber Ensemble. Institute (Seventy Degrees Below Zero). was instructed to sound the alarm (probably © 2017 Cecilia McDowall waking the entire royal household as he did Her music is widely recorded on labels including so). Duchess Elizabeth feared ‘the power of Deux-Elles, Dutton Epoch, and Naxos. Her dreams’ so the trumpeter was also commanded Three Latin Motets were recorded by the renowned to play a lively melody ‘to chase away the child’s American choir, Phoenix Chorale; this Chandos terrors’. The introduction sets the nocturnal Cecilia McDowall and Trio Derazey recording, Spotless Rose, won a Grammy award Cecilia McDowall is a house composer with pace, followed by a gentle rocking motion in the would like to dedicate this recording and was nominated for Best Classical Album. Oxford University Press and is currently visiting accompaniment with sustained trumpet line. to the memory of Pamela Majaro, composer to Dulwich College, London. In 2013 Darker textures follow, leading to an alerting co-founder with her husband Other commissions include works for the Choir she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in call. The middle section gives way to a distant Simon Majaro of the CAVATINA of King’s College, Cambridge, a song cycle Music from the University of Portsmouth and bright trumpet tune to lift the baby’s spirits. Chamber Music Trust. We are most for baritone, Roderick Williams, and the Da in 2017 she was selected to become an Honorary The nightmare dispatched, the household now grateful for their tireless support and Vinci Requiem, an extended work for choir and Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music for returns to its somnolent state. encouragement. orchestra. her outstanding contribution to church music. A near contemporary of Christian IV, the German Jesuit scholar Kircher had a fascination for Page 3 Page 4 Trio Derazey (formerly the Jørgensen Trio) the Aurora Chamber Music Festival in Sweden, was formed in 2012 at the Royal Academy of and in Mdina and Valetta in Malta, as well as at Music.