SOUND OUT 2021 PROGRAMME NOTES

Zoë Martlew, b.1968

Slap On

British composer and cellist Zoë Martlew is a regular performer with the London Sinfonietta. She has also written pieces of music for us and hosts our podcast series, ‘The Music That Made Me’ where she interviews other composers about their favourite music.  

Slap On is inspired by funk music and the strong rhythms of this style of music, the piece can be performed by group of musicians and was originally written for the organisation CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) who support amateur musicians to perform new music. As well as playing their instruments the performers in this piece are instructed to (gently!) slap their bodies with specific rhythms, as well as using their voices. 

Gyorgy Ligeti, 1923-2006

i. Sostenuto – Misurato – Prestissimo from Musica Ricercata 

György Ligeti was born in Transylvania, Romania. The strict Communist regime in the country at that time meant that he was often restricted in what music he was allowed to compose. He later moved to Vienna in Austria where he was free to write the more experimental music he was most interested in. One of his most famous pieces of music featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Have a listen to it here.

The piece you will hear today is the first of eleven short pieces for piano titled Musica Ricercata. The title translates as either ‘researched music’ or ‘sought music’ and marks the beginning of Ligeti’s experimental, more radical composition style. This first movement is unusual in that it features just one note* - an A. Despite only using one note, Ligeti experimented with all the different ways to create musical interest by varying the dynamics and rhythms and jumping up and down the piano keyboard from high to low As throughout the piece.  

*A different note makes one single appearance in the piece if you listen carefully! 

Olivier Messiaen, 1908-1992

iv. Intermede from Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the end of time)

Olivier Messiaen was born in France and studied music at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of 11. He was drafted into the French army during World War II, where he became a prisoner of war and was taken to a camp in Görlitz, Germany in May 1940. He wrote his Quatuor pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the End of Time") whilst he was there and it was first performed in January 1941 to an audience of prisoners and prison guards, with Messiaen himself playing an old and not very well looked-after piano in freezing conditions. 

Angel Adomako, Year 6, Brampton Primary School, Newham

Neon Stripes (World Premiere)

Our clarinettist Mark, said this about the piece

'I’ve chosen to play this piece in our concert because it’s a beautiful design which makes many musical suggestions. It suggests pitch, colours of sound, loudness, flow, and differences between short and long, all without using any conventional musical notation at all and while remaining a beautiful picture. Brilliant!'

Hannah Kendall, b.1984 

A Winged Spirit

Hannah Kendall was born in London but now lives in New York where she a Doctoral Fellow at Columbia University. Hannah likes to use her music to bridge the gap between different musical cultures and is often inspired by other artforms - poems, stories and visual art - composing musical responses to them. She is currently writing an Afrofuturist opera for experimental vocalist and movement artist Elaine Mitchener and will also have a new solo piece for violin premiered by the London Sinfonietta later this year. 

A Winged Spirit was inspired by Joseph Cornell’s untitled artwork for his friend, internationally acclaimed Russian ballerina Tamara Toumanova. It is a fantastical collage where Tamara is depicted as a fairy-like figure in a weightless scene that fuses deep sea and deep space; incorporating shells, marine life and cosmological features, blended together with a white, speckled haze. The piece was written to be performed by people studying the violin, so do have a go if you’re a violinist!  

Ed Hughes, b.1968 

Light Cut Through Dark Skies  

Ed Hughes was inspired to start composing after listening to his school orchestra! He began learning how to write music by listening to other pieces of music and working out how to play them, then using some of those ideas to compose his own works. Ed writes a lot of music for film, and he is particularly interested in composing music for silent films and exploring how music can change and strengthen the atmosphere of what we see on screen. 

Light Cut Through Dark Skies was commissioned by the Bath International Film Festival to accompany a silent film which was made in 1929. The piece has a lot of repeating patterns and aims to reflect the intricate visual patterns and small changes in light in the film. You can watch the whole film here (this version has different music on it to that which we will perform).

Florence Beardsley, Year 6, Hazelwood Primary School, Enfield

The Waves of London (22 March only) (World Premiere)

We chose to perform this piece because we like the detail in it and the playful use of suggested sounds we might try and make with our instruments. Florence’s piece has a real sense of journey and of place. The colours remind us of London’s underground map, and because 5 musicians will play the piece, we can imagine 5 people going on a journey through London’s tube network.

Alex Ho, b.1993 

iii. Celebrating Together from Say Hi 

Alex Ho is a British-Chinese composer based in London. He composes using both Chinese and western instruments and also likes to experiment – he has even composed pieces that include plastic bags and table-tennis players! One of the traditional Chinese instruments Alex writes for is the Yangqin, which you play by hitting the strings with special mallets. His piece Rituals and Resonances (you can listen to it here) uses this instrument specifically because he likes the fact that you cannot always guarantee that it will create the exact same pitch, even if you’re playing the same note.  

Say Hi is inspired by the deep sense of community felt in Chinese culture – Alex mentions specifically the importance of food and sharing a meal together, whether it is with your friends or family. Say Hi is written to include the audience as performers so please join in from your classrooms and homes (there is a short film below to help you learn your part)! The piece uses just five notes and is written for a flexible combination of instruments.  

Charlotte Bray, b.1982 

Dazzlement of Butterflies from Upflight of Butterflies 

Charlotte Bray was born just outside of London in High Wycombe, and went on to study composing at the Birmingham Conservatoire. She has written a wide range of music, from pieces for large orchestras and choirs to smaller ensembles and solo works which have been performed all over Europe, including in Ireland, France and Copenhagen. Charlotte’s musical style is bold, bright and strong so she can create an exhilarating and exciting atmosphere for her audience. 

Upflight of Butterflies was inspired by images from nature and natural light, including sunlight burning through dense clouds, piercing glimpses of blinding light catching your eye as you rush through the air. Bray was also inspired by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and his poem Alliance (Sonata), from a collection of poems entitled ‘Residence on Earth’. The poem describes Neruda feeling isolated and looking for something in the world to connect with. Dazzlement of Butterflies is the last movement (short piece) in the work and is an energetic spiky dance – the piano, clarinet and violin take turns to lead the dance. Bright, musical ‘explosions’ punctuate the dance – like dazzling bursts of light - and become more insistent towards the end.