Informationen zu "Marcus Blunt Sonata Double Bass & Piano"
Verlag: Recital Music
Verlagsnummer: RM799
EAN: 9790570457991
ISMN: M-57045-799-1
Beschreibung
Marcus Blunt writes: 'My interest in writing music specifically for double
bass dates back several years, in 2006, having put the idea to David Heyes, I
wrote a 'Short Suite' for solo double bass. However, I clearly still had much
to learn regarding the instrument's technical requirements (my own speciality
is woodwind), as despite his positive response David only chose to perform
one of its four movements. In 2014 I felt the time was right to re-visit this
music, and with much invaluable help and advice from David Heyes along the
way this concise 'Sonata' took shape. 'The opening Prelude is a vigorous
Allegro, exploiting the full compass from the deepest bass to bel canto
tenor, before it gradually subsides into a calm and quiet coda. The slow Aria
that follows is based on a single melody that was inspired many years
previously by a visit to Inverewe Gardens in Wester Ross. The third movement
(Elegy) was originally entitled Aria, but in its new guise this no longer
seemed appropriate. The wistful mood is swept away by the final wide-ranging
Scherzo, in the course of which earlier themes, particularly from the Elegy,
undergo further development, before all doubts and uncertainties are banished
with a concluding playful flourish.' Marcus Blunt was born in Birmingham in
1947. Although around the age of 9 he had piano lessons from his father for a
year or more, and made his first attempts at composition, his interest in
music did not really take off until he was 14. He went on to study
composition at University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating in 1970.
After a remarkably wide variety of abodes ? in rural Warwickshire,
Manchester, York, and London ? and occupations ? ranging from warehouse
packer and photographic processor to department manager at a music publishers
? he settled in Derby in 1976 as a teacher of woodwind instruments. In 1990
he and his wife Maureen decided to seek a more congenial environment for his
composing work, and are now enjoying the gentler pace of life just North of
the Border. In 1997 Dumfries Music Club appointed him as their Hon.
Composer-in-Residence. His output so far is mainly instrumental, for
anything from piano solo to large orchestra, and has been performed ?
internationally (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, India, Italy, Japan,
Mallorca, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sri
Lanka, USA) as well as throughout Britain and on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM ?
by artists such as the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, the Joachim Piano Trio,
and Kathryn Stott. Competition successes include 2nd place in the Purcell
Composition Prize in 1995 (Fantasy on SCRiABin for piano), 1st in the Surrey
Sinfonietta Composers' Workshop in 2000 (Sonatina No. 2 for clarinet &
piano), and the Judges' Prize in the Oare String Orchestra's 2012 Composing
Competition (Concertino for viola & string orchestra) (the judges included
violist Martin Outram and composer John McCabe). In July 2002 he was a
featured composer at the Victoria International Arts Festival, Gozo (Malta),
with seven performances and a pre-concert talk, all broadcast on local radio.
In 2004 he was commissioned to write a Fanfare to open the Dumfries &
Galloway Silver Arts Festival. In 2006 Murray McLachlan recorded a CD of his
complete solo piano music for the Dunelm label - reissued in 2014 on Divine
Art. In 2009 his Two Serenades for violin, clarinet, cello & piano were
chosen for inclusion in the London Schubert Players? EU-funded Invitation to
Composers project, with performances in Edinburgh, Paris and Namsos (Norway),
as well as a CD recording released in December 2011. This recording was
reissued by Nimbus in November 2012 as part of a 3-CD set entitled A European
Odyssey.
