Dark Sleep

for piano
Published by Oxford University Press

For piano
Duration: 9 minutes

Dark Sleep lasts just under ten minutes and was commissioned by the BBC for the Fairest Isle celebration of Henry Purcell and Michael Tippett. It looks back, as though in some troubled dream, to fragments of Purcell and Tippett and was first performed by Peter Donohoe at Pebble Mill in January 1995.

The widely spaced opening notes, marked very slow and considered, are only much later re-ordered to reveal their genesis - Didos lament from Purcells Dido and Aeneas. This slow introduction is only eight bars old before the music breaks into a quick and relentlessly turbulent passage. A brief reference to the opening of Tippetts Fourth Symphony leads into a slower, more expressive section; a predominantly mysterious, even glassy sound world from which emerges the poignant notes of the lament, now at last momentarily in their correct juxtaposition. Finally, a tiny fragment of the music is spinned obsessively until it falls out of control and back into the carefully placed notes of the opening.

Iberian Notebook

Published by Oxford University Press

For cello
Duration: 15 minutes

A suite in six movements for unaccompanied cello, inspired by the composer's travels in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. It incorporates fragments of traditional melodies and the composer chose the cello as a suitable instrument to depict the heat, richness, and cruelty that are part of Spanish history.

Impromptu

Published by Oxford University Press

For guitar
Duration: 3 minutes

On the morning of 15 July 1983, Julian Bream asked me to a concert and party that evening to celebrate his 50th birthday. Unable to lay my hands on a suitable card or present, I decided to make one - Impromptu was the result. This little vignette which is based on the musical letters in Bream's name (B E and A) was first performed on Radio 3 in 1985 by Anthea Gifford.

Inner Space

Published by Oxford University Press

For flute
Duration: 8 minutes
Year of composition: 2006

I wrote this solo flute piece for Janne Thomsen for the Holstebro Festival in Denmark, where she gave its world premiere in November 2006. We had been talking about a possible solo work ever since I composed Last Breath for flute and harp which she premiered at in Germany a couple of years ago. I like the sound of a solo flute as an extension of the human voice and its ability to be both soft and breathy as well as shrill and piercing.

The opening idea comes from a discarded early piece but I always remembered the wide intervals of the first few bars. Essentially these leaps are the basis for the lyrical music that is at the introspective heart of the work. That inner quest is emphasised by two contrasting and more virtuosic passages - a lilting 6/8 dance and, later a fast and furious race around the instrument which sounds rather like an insect trapped in a jar. The opening music returns at the end but now, in the light of what has transpired, finds its way to a peaceful conclusion.

For guitar
Duration: 4 minutes
Published by Oxford University Press

For cor anglais or oboe
Duration: 5 minutes
Published by Oxford University Press

For guitar
Duration: 12 minutes
Published by Oxford University Press

Strange Meeting

Published by Oxford University Press

For piano
Duration: 15 minutes

Strange Meeting was commissioned by Howard Shelley with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain and first performed by him in Berlin in December 1978.

The work takes as its starting point Wilfred Owen's poem of the same name. The first movement was written five years earlier in 1973 and performed by Malcolm Williamson. Howard Shelley's request for a new piece gave me a welcome opportunity to revise the original movement and add two more.

The first depicts the 'strangeness' of the meeting "...Down some profound tunnel", and the second portrays the viciousness of war with violent, jabbing rhythms and this leads directly into a concluding chorale-like movement in which a kind of peace is attained, echoing the closing words of the poem "Let us sleep now..."

For viola
Duration: 7 minutes
Published by Oxford University Press

Variations on Greek Folk Songs were first performed in London at the Wigmore Hall by Susan Bicknell on 18 May 1981. The piece is a sympathetic glance at the Greek character and the variations take on a quasi-improvisatory feel. The piece lasts approximately 7 minutes.

For guitar
Duration: 6 minutes
Published by Oxford University Press