Chamber

The Crossing

The Crossing

For Tenor Saxophone and Piano (7′)

Programme Note

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing on the North island of New Zealand is regarded as among the top ten single-day trek’s in the world. Located in New Zealand’s oldest national park, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 12 mile hike features unique landforms, including the volcanic peaks of Ngauruhoe, Tongariro and Ruapehu.
‘The Crossing’ is a musical journey through this unique and other-worldly landscape. Beginning in the very early morning, still dark and silent, the gently undulating piano appoggiatura’s gradually increase in density, signally gently building birdsong. Sunrise is indicated through a sudden shift into slowly moving piano chords. This steady climb along board walks in the Mangatepopo Valley builds into a steeper climb up a staircase to a short plateu in South Crater, and here the tenor saxophone line builds in intensity. At the Red Crater, the highest point on ‘The Crossing’ at 1886m, the music breaks into a more intensely rhythmic dance, gradually building in movement and therefore breathlessness. This soon gives way to the eerie, calm, and more tranquil motif that represents the mysterious and other-worldly Blue and Emerald Lakes, built upon an unevenly undulating rhythmic motif. Eventually, the opening ‘sunrise’ chords return, along with a darker and more reflective iteration of the birdsong.

Commissioned by Andy Scott

Everything is Vibration

Everything is Vibration

For Flute and Piano (6′)

Programme Note

The concept of frequencies and vibrations has important implications for our understanding of the universe. It suggests that the universe is not made up of discrete objects, but rather a continuous field of energy and vibration. Everything is connected and interdependent, with each part of the universe affecting every other part.” (Photon. (Feb. 24 2023) ‘The Harmonious Universe: Understanding how everything is made up of frequencies’, Medium. [online]

This piece is inspired by the notion that everything in the universe is connected through vibrations – from atoms, to sound waves, to living organisms and people. The opening explores intricate rhythmic ‘intermingling’ in the upper register of both the flute and piano, representative of atoms and particles ‘whizzing’ around in constant movement. At times, distinct and accented percussive moments cut through the texture, whilst a more slowly syncopated motif resonates like a sound wave or vibration, as if we can see single atoms or features of the universe suddenly illuminated amongst the complexity of the universe as a whole.

The calmer and slower central section explores more resonant and eerie harmony and alludes to this complex movement suddenly occurring in slow motion, in a more lyrical and expressive way. As the music becomes lively again, the rhythmic density of the opening is explored in the lower register of the piano, and the chaotic interplay between the flute and piano continues to develop, before finally dissipating into nothing at the very end.

*World premiere performance given by Iva Ugrčić and Satoko Hayami at the National Flute Association Convention in Atlanta, Georgia on 10th August 2025.

Recording coming soon.

Onwards, upwards

Onwards, upwards

For soprano sax and piano (6:40)

Programme note

‘Onwards, upwards’ is a direct reaction to receiving negative judgment and rejection as a musician, and is about dealing with this idea of having your musical voice questioned with resilience and determination. At first, a light and rhythmic motif that is delicate and vulnerable is explored by the saxophone and piano as a single unit, as the fragments bounce off one another. As the piece progresses, a more definite and robust melodic idea becomes maintained by the saxophone, and the central section allows this voice to soar ever higher as the melody rises through a series of ‘upward’ harmonic shifts. This eventually breaks away into a more contemplative and reflective moment, before the original, more disjointed idea returns and the motif becomes thinner and more fragmented until the end.

 

 

Beneath the Grey

Beneath the Grey

For Piano Trio (9′)

Programme note

“Depression is also smaller than you. Always, it is smaller than you, even when it feels vast. It operates within you, you do not operate within it. It may be a dark cloud passing across the sky but – if that is the metaphor – you are the sky. You were there before it. And the cloud can’t exist without the sky, but the sky can exist without the cloud.” Matt Haig.

‘Beneath the Grey’ is constructed within the traditional ‘arch-shape’ mould; a singular movement that comprises several sections of varying moods and tempos. However, it is also a somewhat personal, and human, journey through a depressed state of mind. Opening with a dark and intense harmonic sequence by way of a gently undulating piano motif, joined later by the pleading and expressive voices of the cello and violin, at first the sky is dark; the clouds are thick, vast, heavy and suffocating. As the piece progresses, there is further melodic development and increasing rhythmic interest as the clouds roll past and life continues to move forwards.

This eventually gives away to a more energetic, pulsing and stormy theme, articulated first through heavy octave motifs from the piano against accompanying pizzicato movement from the strings. But this energy is ‘false’ energy and gradually, as this theme builds, there are more frequent interjections of the first, pleading cantabile theme, constantly shifting through various harmonies. Eventually, this builds to a climactic breaking point with the opening theme becoming more fragmented in the strings. However, instead of building to further darkness, here the clouds finally lift and there is a brief moment of eerie tranquillity, as clearer skies are finally in view, and there is a new weightless energy.

This moment of repose is brief, however, and soon the dark clouds begin to drift across the sky once more. There is a return to the heaviness of the very opening as the first, gently moving piano theme begins again, and the cello and violin present their melancholic melodies with some further harmonic development, before a final, more silent and still interation of the opening.

*World premiere performance given by the Ardentia Trio at Emmanuel Church, Didsbury on 29th March 2025. 

Trapped

Trapped

For Saxophone Quartet (8:30)

 

Programme note:

The idea for ‘Trapped’ emerged during the third national lockdown in the UK during the Coronavirus pandemic, which occurred during January and March 2021. Less about the idea of being ‘trapped’ in isolation, which was a common feeling during the first lockdowns, this is more a reflection of those feelings of frustration and anxiety in which individual voices were unheard and ignored, whilst the systems around them remained unstable, chaotic and disruptive.

A constant driving rhythm, fluctuating between 4 and 7 time, hints at this chaotic urgency, whilst a simpler melody reflects those individual voices trying to be heard above the disruption.

The central section of the piece is a calmer exploration of sound, with a more pleading and contemplative melodic line that interweaves between the four instruments, before arriving in a sonorous chorale where all four voices move together in rich harmony.

Gradually, fragments of the opening rhythmic motif begin to disrupt the calm, and we are once more thrust into the driving and unsettled character of the opening, before, finally, elements of all sections are brought together to end in an agitated and fraught finale.

 

World premiere given by the Apollo Saxophone Quartet at the International Anthony Burgess Centre, Manchester on 5th November 2022.

US premiere given by the Ancia Saxophone Quartet at LunArt Festival in Madison, Wisconsin, on 1st June 2024.

Published with Astute Music

Motherness Suite

Motherness Suite

For String Quartet (14′)

I The Moment

II The Little Seed Grows

III Fear, and Love

 

Programme note:

The ‘Motherness Suite’ is an intimate portrait of a journey into motherhood; an observation, and sometimes a celebration, of the new and very emotional path which new parents walk, and the intensity with which some of these new emotions can overwhelm.

‘The Moment’ is an emotive photograph of the point in time in which a new life enters the world. A moment incomparable to any other, this piece tries to envelop the listener in sound and in an intense harmonic landscape, constantly shifting from uneasy, to joyous and all-consuming, just as this moment completely overcomes those in its presence.

‘The Little Seed Grows’ is a playful and often jubilant rhythmic dance that never stops, capturing the endless growth, change and constant upheaval through a constantly moving pizzicato train, and many harmonic twists and turns. There is a poignancy in the melody to the way in which time forever moves forwards, and this ‘little seed’ will never be so little again.

‘Fear, and Love’ is a tender but sorrowful portrait of a mother’s love and the way in which this love so intensely connects to a constant fear of loss. Sometimes this fear overcomes, sometimes it is kept at bay. For some it has become a reality, and this piece is dedicated to all the mothers who have suffered this loss.

 

Photo Credit: Ingrid Timmerman