Hoar frost at Norwegian Church

The closing days of 2008 witnessed a remarkable frost alongside days of very bright intense sunshine across South Wales and England. At the same time I wrote a short piece for guitar, Sometimes there is hoar frost … , which captures something of the still atmosphere of those days. 

The piece is a short set of double variations, for solo guitar, written  for Michael McCartney, who gave its first performance in the following year. Although little more than five minutes long, its an important piece for me, written at the end of a long barren period and setting up a template for the scale of a lots of pieces that have followed since. 

Its title is taken from Heather and Robin Tanner’s classic record of rural life, Wiltshire Village (1939): “Sometimes there is hoar frost, when trees are transformed to coral and cobwebs to lace”. You can hear a recording made by Michael Hughes of the piece here.

Robin Tanner (1904-88) was a visionary etcher and print maker and I've tried to convey something of the small-scale intensity of his vision in this piece. When I first saw his work, just after his death at the end of the 1980s, his etchings were relatively cheap. Alas, I didn't invest then and can no longer afford them these days. Here is one of his earliest etchings, dating from 1927, just after he had attended the first major retrospective of Samuel Palmer's work at the Victoria and Albert Museum the previous year. 

On Friday 26 February guitarist William Brown gave a wonderful performance of the piece at Cardiff Bay's Norwegian Church (more details here) as part of a concert given with flautist Vicky Guise (they performed my Serenata I in London in December 2014 - more details here). I recently had a rehearsal with Will and was bowled over by the stillness and intensity that he brought to the piece. 

The concert was made up of a fascinating variety of unusual British music and included the premiere of a fabulous new work by Gareth Churchill. 

Early in the morning

Up at 4am this morning to travel out into the Black Mountains to put on an early morning event at the little medieval church of Partrishow (see the previous two blogs for more details and pictures). 

Although there was no sunrise at 7.30am, when the event started,  it was very atmospheric with the grey mists over the surrounding countryside and an army of bats flying around the church. 

We managed to get everything organised ready for the start ...

A very appreciative small and audience listened to the full fifty minutes. 

There were some lovely moments: birdsong as Chrissie Mavron played her solo outside in the church porch;

Ashley Long's closing double bass solo surrounded by the sound of the singing bowls in and outside the church: Michael McCartney magically prolonged ending to one of his solos leading to a long-held silence and Catherine Handley's beautifully poised flute solos (not easy in a cold early morning church). And then breakfast for everyone afterwards with Cathy Morris’s frittatas and my bara brith

Thanks to all the performers and to Cathy Morris, Alex Thacker and Maja Palser. On to the next stage! 

Still Life with Guitar

Yesterday the musicians Still Life with Guitar gave a lunchtime concert at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. As usual with these players, it was a fascinating and unusual event and included the premiere of a new piece of mine (see previous blog, Song for a Hidden Chapel, for more details)

They played in front of an impressive Stanley Spencer Resurrection painting and this, and the other paintings and sculptures dotted around, made it a visual and musical treat. 

They played a great new piece by the young Cardiff-based composer Luke Starkey – one of the movements, called Five Little Pigs, consists of five micro pieces, one of which is only two notes long. Fabulous! Here's Michael McCartney and Emma Coulthard rehearsing.

As you can see the rehearsals were very serious, but also fun …

More info at www.stilllifewithguitar.co.uk  

Song for a Hidden Chapel

Built around 1720, Beiliheulog is a small non-conformist chapel, hidden deep in a remote valley in Breconshire.

After visiting during harvest time in 2009, I composed a piece for flute, viola and guitar, being premiered at the National Museum of Wales on Sunday 15 September by Still Life With Guitar.

Although only six minutes long it’s one of most sparse pieces I’ve ever written – there are only 89 notes in total, and I even took out a few more the other day!

The concert starts at 1pm and is free – it’s a fascinating programme with another first performance by the wonderful young composer Luke Starkey. The three musicians are Emma Coulthard (flute), Philip Heyman (viola) & Michael McCartney (guitar). It would be great to see you there.

More information: www.stilllifewithguitar.co.uk