George Butterworth ‘Is my team ploughing?’, Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad (1911)

'My appreciation of Butterworth’s work has grown steadily over two decades. His settings of A. E. Housman’s poetry in the song cycles Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad and Bredon Hill and Other Songs are marked by a striking simplicity in their design. ‘Is my team ploughing?’ appears at the end of the Shropshire Lad cycle, and stages a conversation between the ghost of a dead man and his living friend. Housman’s poem is a study in betrayal and Butterworth’s setting uses the melody and changing harmonies to underpin the revelations that occur in the dialogue.'

François Couperin ‘Les amusemens’, Pièces de clavecin II: 7ème Ordre (1717)

'As a child, composers attached to Louis XIV’s court at Versailles loomed large in my family home in south-east London. My parents were enthusiasts for French baroque music and often played cassette tapes, LPs and CD recordings of pieces by François Couperin, Jean-Baptiste Lully and Marin Marais. Couperin’s famous ‘Les baricades mistérieuses’ (6ème Ordre) is probably the first piece of music I remember hearing and it instilled in me a love of harpsichord repertoire. ‘Les amusemens’ is another work in rondo form (alternating between theme and refrain) that I find haunting on account of its lilting melodic line.'

Thomas Adès ‘I. Les amusemens’, Three Studies from Couperin (2006)

'Three Studies from Couperin is modelled on harpsichord works by the French baroque composer François Couperin and a version of the piece heard above, ‘Les amusemens’, opens the set. Adès re-uses the material from Couperin’s original harpsichord composition, but gives the notes new timbral qualities by scoring them for different instruments. I like the way he seems to find affinities between the percussive effects of the instruments in the ensemble to emulate the harpsichord in Couperin’s original piece.'

Claudio Monteverdi Beatus Vir (c.1630)

'This motet is a setting of Psalm 112 ‘Blessed is the man’ for full chorus, small groups of voices, organ, basso continuo and a pair of obligato violins. As a teenager, I was invited to play the continuo cello part for a performance given by a group of amateur musicians. The experience of rehearsing this work alerted me to the pleasures of simple, energetic bass lines and the variety of material that can be spun from them.'

György Ligeti Nonsense Madrigals (1988–93)

'A former member of the King’s Singers introduced me to the Nonsense Madrigals and I was instantly captivated. Mimicking a variety of genres and testing the limits of vocal ability, Ligeti presents nonsense texts by Lewis Carroll, William Brighty Rands and Heinrich Hoffmann. The closing madrigal, ‘A Long, Sad Tale’, is a setting of Carroll’s poem ‘A Mouse’s Tail’, which appears in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I love the way that Ligeti’s musical setting of this text revels in dark humour and petulance.'

John Cage Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48)

'As a child I enjoyed inserting small objects into my family’s upright piano to change its sound, and was later outraged to discover that someone else had already come up with this same idea – the American composer John Cage. During my graduate studies I developed a deeper relationship with Cage’s music which informed some of my own compositions. My piece Hatters (2015) explored the musicality of found objects and Five Letters from Aubrey Beardsley (2019) uses progressive degrees of preparation at the piano. Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano is a cycle that continues to capture my imagination by transforming familiar sounds in bold and nuanced ways.'

Bohuslav Martinů Polka in A Major, Etudes and Polkas I (1945)

'This short polka for solo piano was the first work I heard by Martinů and I was struck by its strange combination of liveliness and jolting interruptions. I went on to discover more of Martinů’s other works, including his chamber music and orchestral compositions, however, it is the piano writing that I keep coming back to. Some of my own piano works have been shaped by the same attention to rhythmic boldness and the distinctive ‘flung-about’ quality that I first heard in Martinů’s piano polkas.'

Edward Elgar March No. 3 in C Minor, Pomp and Circumstance (1904)

'While many composers have used military music in their concert hall works, its representation often seems simplistic. Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches are an exception, to my ears capturing the sounds of early twentieth-century British military display with exceptional nuance. The jittery March No. 3 has always appealed to me, vividly drawing on signalling patterns and the characteristic off-beat placement of the bass drum. I also like the way that Elgar captures an acoustic effect common in military parades – namely the way that the sound of the march is first heard in the distance and gradually comes into focus.'

Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (1913)

'Growing up in a family of puppeteers I was naturally drawn to Stravinsky’s music for the ballets Pulcinella and Petrushka – works that reference typical commedia dell’arte characters. The notorious ballet The Rite of Spring has left the most lasting impression on me: I’m still transfixed by the remarkable orchestral writing in this work and the way that the music veers between utter bleakness and energised savagery.'

Gabriella SmithTumblebird Contrails (2014)

'I first heard Tumblebird Contrails in an orchestration seminar at Princeton University. A sumptuous evocation of the sounds of the Pacific around Point Reyes, this groove-driven work captures the rushing of waves and their retreat, the diving and soaring of birds and the pounding of their wings. Tumblebird Contrails reconnected me to a world of large ensemble concert hall repertoire and reminded me of the ways in which the power of an orchestra can be harnessed. As a celebration of the West Coast natural environment, the work has a new kind of significance in relation to the current climate crisis. While there is no recording on Spotify, I had to include this piece in my playlist, so please find a video below.'