Description

Stonewalls is based on a Brigittine (around 15th-16th century) plainchant from Naantali, Finland. Transcribing the melody and using it as the core - or skeleton - for the piece was my starting point. The melody distortedly journeys through the piece, saturated with the use of microtones and excessive instrumental colouring around it, suddenly disturbed by a dense chord - a wall of sound. The quiet melody is frustratingly fighting to be heard over the gradually growing intrusive, obsessive mass of sound which drowns it out. The title Stonewalls refers to the stone church/ cathedral association that comes with the plainchant, or perhaps even to the dense ‘walls’ of sound experienced in the piece.

Instrumentation

2222 2200 10 0, str

Category

Works for Orchestra or Large Ensemble

Prizes

3rd Prize in Royal Northern Sinfonia’s ‘New Year, New Music’ Composition Competition 2017

Premiere

Royal Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Lars Vogt. Sage Gateshead, Newcastle, UK, January 26, 2018

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Archive number

MF33602

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