Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii (2019)
for saxophone and orchestra

Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii was a BBC Commission, premiered in 2019, and is essentially a sort of saxophone concerto, inspired by the novel Cloud Atlas by one of my favourite writers, David Mitchell. It’s a special piece for me because it was written for the amazing saxophonist and composer Trish Clowes. I got to know her a few years earlier when I wrote a piece for her group Emulsion Sinfonietta. I’ve always been fascinated by the meeting points between genres, and working closely with Trish here really allowed me to explore that. Here you can listen to the second movement, called 12 Stars for Papa Song. I thought the Guardian summed up the piece pretty well, as ‘a nightmarish slab of dystopian science-fiction, where Clowes’s tenor sax seems to serve as the sole representative of humanity’.

Just Passing Through (2021) 
for solo piano and orchestra

In January 2020, I was invited to Seoul National University to begin work on a new commission for their Contemporary Music Ensemble, including instrumentalists from their wonderful Department of Korean Music. Over three days, I attended workshops and concerts. And then, a month later lockdown came along. The project then became an online collaboration, resulting in a recording made with me attending on zoom. From the recording, the university created this beautiful film. Just Passing Through can perhaps be seen as a meditation on different notions of transience.

Folk Music (2007) 
for string quartet 

Folk Music was written for the Smith Quartet’s album Dance. In the 1990s, I spent three years studying in Warsaw and fell in love with Polish Goralski  folk music, from the Tatra Mountains. This piece is a sort of deconstruction of that music, with the materials gradually reassembling over time into a wild, revelrous ending. A few years back, the brilliant filmmaker Tim Hopkins created a beautiful film to the recording, which you can watch above.

Sonata for Broken Fingers (2023) 
an opera in one act 

Sonata for Broken Fingers is essentially a radio opera, with libretto by Max Hoehn. It’s a 70-minute piece, in 21 short scenes, and was premiered by Opera21 and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in summer of 2024. Inspired by the life of pianist Maria Yudina, the piece explores music’s ability to survive even in the hardest of circumstances. I was very lucky to be able to work with an unbelievably fantastic cast. In the video below, we have a flashback to a show-trial with the prosecutor – played by mezzo soprano Lucy Schaufer – sparring with the lead protagonist Maximova – played by RPS Award-winning soprano Claire Booth. I love the way they play off one another here.

Music for Cello and Strings (2005) 
for solo cello and string orchestra 

Music for Cello and Strings is a cello concerto in three movements written for Robin Michael, who recorded it with the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Charles Hazelwood. The outer movements are dark and brooding, but the second movement is something different: frenetic and mercurial, borrowing harmonic material from Bach’s famous Chaconne for solo violin. A couple of years back, Robin played the piece with Musica Vitae in Kirkwall Cathedral as part of St Magnus Festival and it was very special to hear it performed in that remarkable location. The concerto was recorded for BBC Radio 3’s series Discovering Music, which you can listen to here.

In Praise of Dreams (2004) 
for soprano and piano 

I’ve been very fortunate to work with some amazing singers, but I might have never written for voice had it not been for the incredible and much missed Sarah Leonard who encouraged me greatly, patiently helping me to better understand writing for voice. We collaborated on four works in total, often focussing on texts by the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska or Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. The song in the video below, An Unexpected Meeting, is the final song of a song cycle called In Praise of Dreams, all settings of Szymborska. An Unexpected Meeting is about seeing someone again after many years, with whom you previously had an intense relationship. The poem is full of wonderful imagery, such as the line ‘our tigers drink milk’.

Elsewhereness (2018) 
for symphony orchestra 

In 2017 Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where I have taught for many years, moved into its new building. I was invited to write a new work for the opening gala concert of the new Bradshaw Hall, performed by the RBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. I began conceiving Elsewhereness while still working in the old conservatoire building which was gradually being dismantled, just as the new Royal Birmingham Conservatoire was emerging from its foundations. Birmingham is a city that always seems to be in a state of flux, with new buildings being constructed and old ones disappearing or morphing into something other. Whilst working on the piece, I experienced a heightened awareness of the impermanence of the cities we construct; how what appears solid and familiar over time re-configures itself into something new. When a new building is created, one enters into a negotiation with time, in a way quite similar to the act of composition. That was something I wanted to explore in this work.

McNulty (2016) 
for violin, piano and cello 

In this set of Key Works, I’ve tried to highlight performers with whom I’ve had long-standing, hugely rewarding collaborations. The members of the Fidelio Trio are certainly among those, and I’ve worked together with them for over twenty-five years. McNulty, for piano trio, was written for them in 2016, and premiered at soundfestival in Scotland. McNulty takes quite a lot of inspiration from the American TV drama series The Wire which I was really hooked on at the time of writing. Jimmy McNulty is one of the key characters. Themes within the piece include exploring what is pertinent and non-pertinent material, second generation heritage (in McNulty’s case Irish-American), and musical structures that go off the rails.

Boogie Nights (2012) 
for ‘Busy Drone’ barrel organ and 14 players 

I’m interested in what happens when you bring together things that don’t traditionally meet, and the last two pieces in my Key Works are examples of this. Boogie Nights was a commission from Het Orgelpark in Amsterdam, and was written for Dutch wind orchestra Orkest de Ereprijs and the ‘Busy Drone’ – an extraordinary, ornate Belgian mechanical organ from 1920. The piece is in five movements, and the video below is of the second movement which features lots of interplay between the ‘live’ percussionist and the ‘mechanical’ percussion of the organ.

Ping! (2012) 
for string quartet, 4 table tennis players and film 

Ping! was a commission for the 2012 New Music Biennale, following a call for proposals from PRS Foundation for works that would bring together music and sport in some way. I grew up playing a lot of table tennis, and my brother Tom was a top Junior in England. Table tennis is a sonically complex and rhythmic sport, where players use their ears to hear what spin is on the ball. Ping! brings together four table tennis players and string quartet. Alongside is a film by Tom Dale which acts as a ‘referee’. It’s not a concert hall piece, having been presented at table tennis clubs, theatres and foyers. I like the fact that it’s hard to say exactly what Ping! is. For me, it’s a kind of dance, exploring and celebrating how we create families through our individual interests and pastimes.