My new work for Dr K Sextet as part of the Cheltenham Festival Composers’ Academy received its premiere on Saturday, conducted by Michael Thrift.
‘For who digs hills because they do aspire’, for 6 players (in the form of three duos), draws on quoted texts from Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Glenda Jackson.
In my previous post on the academy I mentioned my dramatic idea, and concept of ‘aspiration’: specifically the persuasive, manipulative corruption or “jawboning” of the word in vogue. This idea fed into the humorous nondramatic nature of a piece that sees 6 characters lamenting their failure to express the coveted material of a soloist.
Subtitled ‘air and agony with words’, the piece took inspiration from lines of Much Ado About Nothing punning on ‘ache’/’h’ (an aspirate consonant…). The title itself comes from Pericles: ‘…Throws down one mountain to cast up a higher.’
The Composer Showcase received a review from Rian Evans in The Guardian on Tuesday. My piece was deemed ‘highly theatrical’!