Various vocally-slanted classical gigs for the coming month, with an emphasis on various kinds of songcraft.
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London Composer’s Forum presents:
Tea House Theatre, 139 Vauxhall Walk, Vauxhall, London, SE11 5HL, England
Friday 2nd February 2018, 7.30pm – information here, here, here and here
“In this concert London Composers Forum composers will explore the many and varied aspects of the art song, with solo and ensemble vocal pieces on a wide variety of themes accompanied by a chamber ensemble of wind and strings.”
“Vocal music, which may have begun as an accessory to the dance in remote antiquity, is probably the oldest branch of the art of music. At a later time, bards and troubadours developed the art to commemorate heroic exploits and heroes’ deaths, and minstrels, with their songs of love both innocent and erotic, contributed another genre. During the course of the twentieth century, with the assistance of broadcasting and the record industry, the art of song proliferated into many styles. There are good and bad examples in all of these, but on the whole, there has been a regrettable tendency to ignore the art and craftsmanship in the process.
“The aim of this venture is to write songs for an evening’s general entertainment and to demonstrate that the art of good song-writing never died. Nine musicians will provide the accompaniment to a variety of original and colourful songs, especially written for the occasion. Come, with your friends, and enjoy the music in the ambient atmosphere of the Tea House, where food will be served until 10pm and drinks until midnight. See you there!”
Among the works performed will be David Arditti’s ‘Chamber Music’ (a song cycle setting of James Joyce, sung by tenor Ezra Williams and now orchestrated for a larger chamber ensemble) and Laurence Glazier‘s ‘Smartphone Aria’. There will also be new songs by Denis Betro, Jane de Florez, Peter Openshaw, Pamela Slater, John Holland, Liz Sharma, Janet Oates and Philip Jones. No news on who, besides Ezra, is actually performing (although I’m reasonably sure that Jane de Florez will be singing her own material.)
A preview of Lawrence’s piece – and a few examples of previous songs from various contributors – are below…
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Another classical songwriter’s concert for February is here – this one’s a free admission event for anyone who’s got an early Tuesday afternoon available…
Borough New Music and 2021 Concerts present:
‘Featured Composers: Songwriters of 2018’
St. George the Martyr Church, Borough High Street, Borough, London, SE1 1JA, England
Tuesday 20 February 2018, 1.00pm – free event – information here
Rasmus Zwicki and Robert Reid Allan (glockenspiel/melodica), Ben Smith (piano, glockenspiel/melodica), Siân Dicker (soprano), Mimi Doulton (soprano), Delphine Mégret (soprano) and Krystal Tunnicliffe (piano) are performing a set of songs composed over the last few years by contemporary composers born in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (including Rasmus himself).
Programme:
Clare Elton – Escape
James Garner – Emily Dickinson Settings
Cecilia Livingston – Give Me Your Hand
Oscar Ridout – Élévation
Mo Zhao – Just Watching
Rasmus Zwicki – Fly Little Birdy
A couple of tastes…
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The above is part of Series 5, the latest set of lunchtime concerts from south London New Music promoters Borough New Music covering new and rarely-performed contemporary pieces. For part of this season, Borough Music have teamed up with 2021 Concerts (Mimi Doulton and fellow soprano Patricia Auchterlonie’s own concert series) for several performances focussing on the human voice, sometimes in odd combinations and juxtapositions with other instruments.
Mimi herself makes another appearance in the series, performing a series of vocal/song-pieces, one of which – Alex Gowan-Webster’s ‘Cantio Invocatione’ – is a world premiere. The rest, dating from the late 1970s to the late noughties (Judith Weir’s ‘King Harald’s Saga’, Stephen Barchan’s ‘Two Songs About Spiders’, Elliott Carter’s ‘La Musique’, Georges Aperghis’ ‘Récitations 1 & 8’ and Oliver Knussen’s ‘Four Late Poems and an Epigram of Rainer Maria Rilke’) are not.
Borough New Music and 2021 Concerts present:
‘Featured Instrument: The Voice’ (or “Focus: Solo Voice’)
St. George the Martyr Church, Borough High Street, Borough, London, SE1 1JA, England
Tuesday 13 February 2018, 1.00pm – free event – information here and here
Some previous examples of the songs in the set…
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Other events in Series 5 this month are:
- ‘Got Lost’ (a Helmut Lachenmann/Morton Feldman/Martin Lodge piano-and-viola afternoon with Ben Smith and Kirsty Clark on Tuesday 6th)
- ‘Pot Luck: Voice, Cello & Piano – My Life By Water‘ (in which Patricia Auchterlonie is the featured singer alongside cellist Urška Horvat and pianist Clare Simmonds, performing music by Luciano Berio, Harrison Birtwistle, Witold Lutosławski, Vito Palumbo, André Previn, John Tavener and Alessandro Viale, which is on on Tuesday 27th)
As with the two other Series 5 events, these are both free and take place at St. George the Martyr at 1.00pm.
Misfit City 