Handel composer series#

Handel composer series#

It was my intention to build a community of new music with this series – and it was such a pleasure to share these intimate gigs in Handel’s music room with the audience and musicians. Running concurrently in November was the CiR Curated Series – for which I welcomed friends old and new to Handel House to present four concerts, responding to both the historicism of the house, and the museum’s commitment to new music (with concerts involving new commissions written especially for the series). (A big thanks to the following musicians who made this all possible: Flute:Taylor Maclennan, Accordion: Bartosz Glowacki, Violin & Viola: Clarice Rarity, Cello: Jamal Aliyev, Double Bass: Nina Harries, Soprano: Josephine Stephenson). You can view Edward’s original words here and listen to the piece below, with some beautiful performances from Handel House Talent, conducted by William Cole.įor 10 days in November, Handel House was overflowing with new music, with the annual CiR-curated series (four concerts of new music), as well as an installation work I’d written, which ran each day in Handel’s bedroom.Īs I’ve spilt a fair bit of ink on the installation already on this blog, I shan’t bore you with too many more details! But for those who didn’t have a chance to pop in and catch the piece while it ran, I include below a small snippet of the work - one strand of possible material, based on Scarlatti. The work is scored for the players of this year’s HHT (two recorders, chamber organ, harpsichord, baroque cello, mezzo - with the addition of electronics), and it was such a massive privilege to work with such expert players, and such an idiosyncratic line-up!

Throughout Villanelle strands of material (whose origins often stretch beyond the confines of the piece) are passed between three spatially-separated ensembles, whilst the mezzo-soprano’s vocal line weaves in and out, providing a more continuous and seamless surface.

Together with librettist and collaborator Edward Allen, I explored in Villanelle an aspect of Handel’s compositional process that has intrigued me throughout my residency: the composer’s occasional tendency to break up his music with small phrases or units of music – often borrowed from other sources – inserted into the music, and later smoothed over.