INFORMATION - in track order

 

1.BEFORE HISTORY (1991) [09:07]

Scored for solo oboe - for Sylvia, was influenced by:

This is the long-lulled pause, Before history happens,

When the spirit hungers for form,

from ‘The Strange Museum" by Tom Paulin, reproduced by kind permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. Recorded at Peter Symonds College, Winchester, May ‘24, Sylvia Turner - oboe.

 

2.AUTUMN (1995) [11:38]

This was commissioned by Sally Edwards on behalf of Winchester City Council for the Celebration of Literature festival, September 1995. Whilst living in Winchester, the poet, John Keats, took a daily walk through the Water Meadows to St Cross. On Sunday 19th September 1819 – after such a walk, he wrote his Ode to Autumn. Inspired by Keats Ode, Martin’s Autumn sets most of the original text, together with fragments of a letter Keats wrote just after completing the Ode.Autumn was written for Sarah Fryer and Camarada, and dedicated to Beccy, Simon and Matthew.

Recorded 1997, Braishfield Church, by Camarada with Sarah Fryer – mezzo-soprano. Reproduced with kind permission of the performers.

 

3-11.  THE DEATH OF COLONEL BOLES (2000) [25:04]

A movement of the Millennium composition: Between Now and Always,

commissioned by Hampshire Music 2000. Words by Philip Sealey.

Recorded here is the full version, complete with its four interludes. These are published separately by Fand Music, as The Civil War Suite.

Instrumentation:

Colonel Boles - tenor solo & drum; King Charles - trio of solo voices: soprano, alto & bass; Parliamentarian forces - SATB choir; Royalist forces - SATB choir of about 8 voices; solo cello; interludes - recorder quintet.

Recorded at Keble College Oxford, July ’23, by Acclaim Productions, featuring Commotio, Paul Sheehan – baritone, Joseph Spooner – cello, Carl Clausen – drum, directed by Matthew Berry with Oxford Recorder Consort.

 

12-15. MARY ROSE SONGS (2000) [09:21]

Mary Rose is a composition project from the Millennium composition: Between Now and Always, commissioned by Hampshire Music 2000 with funds made available by the Millennium Festival Fund. Words by Philip Sealey

Four Sea Shanties for children’s choir with piano: The ballad of the Mary Rose, The Cabin Boy’s Song, Seven Fathoms Deep and Mary’s Lament.

Mary Rose was written for Portsmouth, near where Henry VIII’s ship The Mary Rose sank, 1545, in the Solent. It was designed as a complete project, combining elements of performance, listening and creative composition.

Recorded at Winchester University, November ’23, with Hampshire Youth Junior Choir, directed by Nick Duncombe.

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16.DRAWING DETAILS IN AN OLD CHURCH (1990) [05:18]

for voice (tenor) with piano, dedicated to Catherine

Poem by Thomas Hardy

Martin wrote: ‘…although we respected and liked each other’s work, (artist) Catherine (Barnes) could not afford to commission a new work from me, and I could not afford one of her paintings. The obvious solution was, therefore, to swap works. Catherine now has the manuscript of this song; I have a Catherine Barnes.’

Recorded at Peter Symonds College, Winchester, May ’24, Tom Bullard – voice, David Owen Norris – piano.

 

17.TROPER FRAGMENT (2011) [10:12]

Cello and piano - for Joseph.

Commissioned with funds from Camarada, Ian Yang, and an anonymous donor.

 

Troper Fragment was written for cellist Joseph Spooner & pianist Kathryn Mosley’s recital at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Hyde, Winchester, October 2011. It was therefore only natural that the starting point for the piece should be taken from the Winchester Troper, which includes perhaps the oldest collection of two-part music in Europe. The Troper consists of two English manuscripts dated circa 1000 - one currently in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the other in Corpus Christi, Cambridge. Both were originally used at Winchester Cathedral. Troper Fragment takes the initial fragment of Alleluia V. Dies Sanctificatus – which is then transformed throughout the piece into other fragments which are then juxtaposed against each other, creating a sense of drama.

 

Recorded at Peter Symonds College, Winchester, May ’24,

Joseph Spooner – cello, David Owen Norris – piano.

 

18. ANGEL OF HISTORY violin paraphrase (1998) [05:07]

Three main elements influenced Martin’s writing of The Angel of History ensemble work for Camarada:

i) Gerhard Scholem - 'Gruss vom Angelus'

My wing is ready for flight, I would like to turn back. If I stayed timeless time, I would have little luck.

ii) Walter Benjamin, 1892-1940 'Illuminations'

His face is turned towards the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, waken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the great pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

iii) The work of colleague Al Saralis, artist, on Angel of History, and their methods of working.

Violin paraphrase is the essential elements of the ensemble work, condensed into a short work for solo violin.

Recorded at Peter Symonds College, Winchester, May ’24, Jake Rea – violin.

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19.DEATH BE NOT PROUD (1992) [06:19]

John Donne’s sonnet left a lasting impression on Martin who first came across it recited at his father-in-law’s funeral in 1987. Set for 16-part choir with soprano & alto solo voices, for David Hill and Winchester Cathedral Choir.

Recorded at Keble College Oxford, July ’23, by Commotio, directed by Matthew Berry.

 

BIOGRAPHIES - composer followed by track order.

PHOTOS  below

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Martin Read (1959 – 2012) – composer

Born in Birmingham, Martin attended Bishop Vesey’s Grammer School. He studied music at Colchester Institute and Goldsmiths, London University, where he gained a masters in composition. In 1988 he was admitted as a Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London (FTCL) and from 1996 to 2002 was a            shortlisted composer with the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM).His music has been  performed by numerous ensembles and choirs, and has featured at many contemporary music festivals, including Spittalfields, Southern Cathedrals, Corsham, Malvern, Farnham, Bath and Huddersfield. His music has also been performed across the USA and Europe. Berlin- based Saxophonquadrat has taken his Earth Waiting to Belgrade, Skopje and Bitola. In May 1999 Martin was appointed Millennium Composer to the Hampshire 2000 project, a position which required him to write for a large number of works for Hampshire county, area and school ensembles, including his cantata The Death of Colonel Boles. The 2000 project culminated in Martin conducting around 700 young performers in his Mary Rose in the Schools Prom in the Royal Albert Hall, April 2000.

 

Sylvia Turner – oboe & cor anglais.

Sylvia’s musical training began at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music and continued at the University of Southampton and post-graduate Advanced Study Course at the Royal College of Music. Her varied freelance career includes playing the oboe, oboe d’amore, cor anglais and occasionally bassoon, for solo recitals, concertos, chamber groups, a wide range of orchestral playing, shows,            recordings and a number of first performances. Since 2023 she has been running the Chameleon Arts Orchestra, which specialises in accompanying choral concerts. She currently teaches at Charterhouse and Aldro as well as privately. For fun, she plays the harpsichord, sings in the Waverley Singers and enjoys cycling and swimming.

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Camarada with Sarah Fryer – Autumn

Formed in 1992, Camarada was a flexible chamber ensemble. It’s aims were to foster the audience of the future and to increase the available repertoire for chamber groups. Performers on Autumn are: Sylvia Harper – cor anglais, Jake Rea – violin, Rachel Walker – viola and Joseph Spooner- cello, with Sarah Fryer – mezzo-soprano. Now based in Canada, Sarah has appeared on concert platforms throughout Europe and in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Singapore. She made her professional debut as the mezzo soloist in Mozart's Requiem Mass in Wells Cathedral, at age sixteen. Major career highlights include six years as a soloist at the Bayreuth Festival, and roles in opera productions in Nantes, Turin, Dublin, and at La Scala, Milan (Riccardo Muti). Sarah has recorded for BBC and CBC radio, and the Naxos and Nimbus record labels. She has sung as a soloist at many prestigious festivals including the Three Choirs Festival, Taormina Arte, and The Aldeburgh Festival. Concert highlights over her 44-year career include Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (Naxos recording), Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, among many performances between 2001-2016 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, directed by the late Bramwell Tovey, Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, directed by David Hill, and R. Strauss’s opera Elektra (Dritte Magd) with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, directed by Kent Nagano. In 2017 Sarah was mezzo soloist in the first performance of Francis Pott’s powerful oratorio Cantus Maris at the Royal Festival Hall, London, with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Sarah enjoys adjudicating and working in masterclasses with young singers. She is the Artistic Director of the concert series Music at Wentworth Villa (www.wentworthvilla.com) which she founded in 2016, and teaches at Christ Church Cathedral School, Victoria BC, where her class sings every day!Sarah was based in Winchester from 1992-2001, where she enjoyed working with Martin Read and Camarada on several projects including Lady Lazarus and Autumn.

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Commotio was formed in August 1999 to promote neglected contemporary choral repertoire. Performances have included the second UK performance of Alfred Schnittke’s mighty Requiem and other rarely heard works including Paul Hindemith’s Mass and Kenneth Leighton’s Mass for Double Choir, and the world premiere of Pierre Villette’s Inviolata. Commotio also promotes and performs the works of a younger generation of composers including, most recently, Grace-Evangeline Mason, David Bednall, and Kerensa Briggs. Their début CD of South African choral music was released​ in February 2006, followed by a CD for choir and cello in February 2008. A track from the latter disc, Richard Allain’s Ubi caritas, was chosen to feature on the Classic FM core playlist and appears in the compilation CD Smooth Classics – the Ultimate Collection. The choir recorded a disc of the music of James Whitbourn which was released on the Naxos label (8.572103) in February 2010 and reached no.2 in the Specialist Classical Chart. Their second Naxos CD, In the Heart of Things (8.572739), the choral works of Francis Pott, was released on the Naxos label in February 2012. In August 2013 Commotio featured as a gala choir at the Association of British Choral Directors’ Convention. In November 2013, the choir’s fifth CD The Rose in the Middle of Winter – Carols by Bob Chilcott was released and reached no.1 in the Specialist Classical Chart. Commotio’s sixth recording, featuring jazz-inspired choral works by Bob Chilcott, was released in September 2017 and reached no.11 in the UK Jazz Charts. The choir gave the first UK performance of Rolande Falcinelli’s Messe de Sainte Dominique in June 2018 and in March 2019 they embarked on their seventh recording featuring Francis Pott’s Word and his new work for cello and double choir, At First Light (released July 2020). Commotio recorded works by the late Martin Read in Keble College Chapel in July 2023, including The Death of Colonel Boles, with cellist Joseph Spooner and baritone Paul Sheehan. Commotio celebrated its 20th anniversary in September 2019, with a reunion concert of current and past choir members. Works included the 24-part In Nomine by Bo Holten, Pierre Villette’s Attende Domine, and the world premiere of Richard Allain’s Music, commissioned and written for the occasion. The 25th anniversary will take place at SJE, Oxford, on 28 September 2024.

Sopranos: Aoife Dudley, Dawn Herbert, Anne Marie Lo, Roshni Mansfield, Chloe Martindale, Rebecca Rose, Kate Smith, Hannah Wight

Altos: Anne-Marie Boylan, Susan Glaisher, Lucy Harlow, Katie Hillier, 

Emily Pillinger, Helen Swan, Pippa Thynne

Tenors: Declan Costello, Philip Fine, James Graham, Michael Hosking, Neil Malcolm, Tim Nightingale, David Smith*, Tim Wilcox

Basses: Jack Bertram*, Peter Conlon, Kevin Jones, Alexander Karlsson, John Kay, Martyn Matthews, Moray McConnachie, Philip Towler

*Death be not proud only

Soloists:

Death be not proud - Soprano: Aoife Dudley, Alto: Chloe Martindale

The Death of Colonel Boles - Soprano: Hannah Wight, Bass: Martyn Matthews​​​​​​

 

Paul Sheehan – baritone: Colonel Boles.

Paul trained at the GSMD, having sung as a choral scholar in Exeter Cathedral choir, and studied with Robert Dean. A member of the chorus at English National Opera, he has also performed various roles there including Antonio (The Marriage of Figaro) as well as Ceprano (Rigoletto) for Grange Park Opera and Peter (Bach St Matthew Passion) for Glyndebourne. Photo: The Death of Colonel Boles ensemble.

 

Joseph Spooner – cello

Joseph’s diverse career has taken him across the UK, from the Baltic to the Atlantic, and from the recording studio to concert platforms in Continental Europe, Russia, New York, Mexico, and New Zealand. There have been notable chamber music collaborations (with, among others, Madeleine Mitchell) and numerous premieres (including with Continuum Ensemble). Joseph’s delving into the repertoire has led to the recovery of many unjustly neglected works, and he has earned high praise from critics for both the performances and recordings resulting from this exploration. Recent years have seen Joseph’s varied discography expand further, and it now includes Percy Sherwood’s Double Concerto (with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Rupert Marshall-Luck); Francis Pott’s At First Light for choir and solo cello; and cello sonatas  by  Austin,  Cooke,  Gipps,  Ireland,  Jacob, Moeran, Rawsthorne, and Sherwood (with Duncan Honeybourne, David Owen Norris, and Rebeca Omordia). Joseph was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2012 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2022. He is proud to be the dedicatee of works by Alwynne Pritchard, Errollyn Wallen, and Martin Read. His instrument was made in the workshop of Nicholas Vuillaume in c.1865. https://josephspooner.net           Photo: The Death of Colonel Boles ensemble.

 

Carl Clausen – drum.

Carl was born in Chile but completed his music degree at the University of Essex-Colchester Music School and Surrey University where he completed a Masters degree in conducting. Carl worked as tutor and later director of the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra and also as ensemble coordinator and special events manager with the Hampshire Music Service. Community projects where an important part of this role and included: Britten’s community opera Noye’s Fludde, Bernstein’s Mass, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Petrushka. Photo: The Death of Colonel Boles ensemble. 

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Matthew Berry - conductor

Joint-founder and conductor of Commotio, Matthew Berry studied music at University College, Oxford, where he was Organ Scholar and then Assistant Organist. He has studied organ under David Sanger, David Goode and Ian Curror. After conducting The Oxford Chamber Choir for two years as a student, he founded Commotio in 1999. Having finished his degree, he studied post-graduate choral direction with Patrick Russill for two years at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Matthew’s expertise lies in the research and promotion of little-known contemporary choral repertoire, principally from Scandinavia, South Africa, the United States and Slovenia. In 24 years working with Commotio he has initiated many premieres including, most recently, the UK Premiere of Falcinelli’s Messe de Sainte- Dominque. In February 2013, the Governing Body of the Royal Academy of Music elected Matthew as Associate of Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), an award to ‘former students who have made a significant contribution to the music profession’. Photo: The Death of Colonel Boles ensemble. 

 

Oxford Recorder Consort - Heidi Fardell, Annabel Knight, Louise Bradbury, Kathryn Corrigan & Rebecca Austen Brown. These critically acclaimed recorder players perform and record with a diverse range of early and contemporary ensembles, nationally and internationally. Each respected music educators in their field,  they are also passionate about supporting a wide range of ages in their music-making and committed to the development and promotion of their wonderful instrument - the recorder!

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David Owen Norris - pianist, composer and broadcaster, has won prizes in international competitions in Geneva Leeds and Sydney. Since his appointment to the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award has performed all across the world, with concerto appearances in the BBC Proms, concert tours of Europe, Australia and North America, including performances at Sydney Opera House, the Kennedy Centre, Lincoln Centre, Ravinia Festival Chicago, the South Bank Centre etc. He has a discography of 60 commercial CDs including his own Piano Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and his oratorio Prayerbook. His other compositions include a Symphony, the oratorio Turning Points, and the multi-media tribute to the passing seasons, HengeMusic. He recently gave the premiere  of  his  Piano  Sonata.  David’s Chord of the Week programmes on BBC2 television were a popular feature of the Proms for six years. His Perfect Pianists has been shown fourteen times so far on BBC4 television, where he has also contributed to programmes on Handel, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Tippett, Mendelssohn & Elgar. His first TV presentation, The Real Thing? from 1990, was hailed by the Daily Telegraph as ‘the most literate and probing programme on music for many years’, and his most recent Chord of the Week was reviewed by the Observer as ‘the most consistently intelligent three minutes you’ll watch on this or any other television this year’. The Beethoven 9 app for which he wrote the book and the analyses won the Best Music App Award. His many radio presentations have included the frequently-repeated Playlist series on BBC Radio 4, and In Tune and The Works on Radio 3, where he recently made his 34th appearance on Building a Library. Recordings recently released include Mozart on fortepiano for Hyperion, featured in the New York Times, the complete Chamber Music of Grace Williams, which was a Guardian CD of the Week, and the complete songs of Sir Arthur Sullivan on Chandos​

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Jake Rea – violin

Jake Rea studied the violin at the Royal College of Music and the Prague Academy. Jake was a member of the English Chamber Orchestra and now plays with many prominent orchestras in the UK and abroad, including the Royal Opera House in London. He plays a 1770 Neapolitan violin by Raphael di Blasio.

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Catherine Barnes – cover, studied painting at Camberwell School of Art in the 1960’s and later, History of Art at Goldsmiths' College, London. Her extensive painting and exhibiting career has included exhibitions in London, England, Ireland, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy and Greece. In 1984 she moved to Winchester where she established Juno Studio and was appointed a Visiting Lecturer in Art History at University of Southampton and a Visiting Artist and Lecturer at Southampton City Art Gallery. She became a colleague of Martin Read in Alton and then began a series of collaborations, including the artwork for “Autumn” (1995) and, in 2009, an exhibition in Chichester of “Musicscapes” based on Martin’s scores. ‘Drawing Details in an Old Church’ was written for her in 1990. www.catherinebarnes.com

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