John McCabe

This was first performed by Martin Milner with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Maurice Handford in the Free Trade Hall Manchester in March 1963 being broadcast some months later. The work and its general shape were suggested by T. S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men and the scoring includes a large percussion section

For Clarinet and String Quartet.Published in 2011.Score.This work was commissioned by Linda Merrick and the Kreutzer Quartet to whom it is dedicated as a project involving commission performance recording and  educational and outreach work. It was supported by funds provided by the PRS for  Music Foundation RVW Trust The Holst Foundation the Royal Northern College of Music and the Ida Carroll Trust. The first performance was given at the Royal Northern  College of Music Manchester on June 15th 2011.

Commissioned by the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts Limited with funds provided by the Arts Council of Wales for premiere in August 2012 by the Carducci String Quartet in St. Andrew?s Church Presteigne.Composer's Note'Some years ago I noted down the opening theme of what I anticipated would be a relatively Classical string quartet ?Classical? in the sense of the forms adopted plus perhaps a predominantly lyrical tone of voice. The commission for this work from the Presteigne Festival for their 30th anniversary in 2012 gave me the opportunity of putting into practice this long-held idea. It isdedicated to the Festival and to the Carducci Quartet whose career as much-admired friends and colleagues I have greatly enjoyed.The only break with ?classical? tradition is that there are five movements instead of four with two Scherzi as the second and third though both these are very short and contrasting. I found myself listening to Haydn?s string quartets a lot before and during the composition of this work and I hope the spirit of his delight in writing for this medium is echoed in my own music. The opening movement is in sonata form unusually for me and lyricism is I hope the basis of it though there is a good deal of activity at times. The Scherzo light and marked by frequently-changing rhythms is followed by an equally short but ferocious Perpetuum mobile marked Wild und rasch (one of my favourite German tempo markings). The fourth movement is an intense Adagio in which a single phrase uttered strongly in unison is gradually transformed into gentle diatonic chords before the close intermingled with cadenzas for cello for viola and for the two violins together. The finale (a Rondo) resumes the classical tone of the first movement but apart from one dance-like episode it builds up a fair head of steam towards a final Presto which however ascends slows and quietens towards a gentle summer sky at dusk.'

(Study Score)-The Double Concerto for Oboe Clarinet and Orchestra was commissioned by the English Heritage for performance at their open air summer concerts in 1988.

This work was commissioned by the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts Ltd. with theaid of funds provided by the John S. Cohen Foundation and the PRS Foundation. The firstperformance was given by Rachel Nicholls and Paul Plummer at St. Andrew’s Church Presteigne on 29 August 2005.Composer's NoteGladestry Quatrains is a setting of 12 short poems by Jo Shapcott from her collection of the same title. It originated in a project for the 2003 Presteigne Festival called A Garland for Presteigne in which 10 composers associated with the Festival were asked to write a short song each celebrating the Welsh border country the choice of poetryranged widely and I chose two of Jo Shapcott’s evocative miniatures (still adding up to slightly less than the timing I had been requested to provide!). As I wrote them I started to make sketches for some more settings from the same collection and the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts very kindly commissioned this new larger song-cycle proper for their 2005 Festival. The original pair of poems form the third (Gwaithla Brook) and last (Cefn Hir) of the songs in which the eighth combines two poems Burl Hill and Newchurch. Throughout I have been aware of the sights and sounds of nature the character of the landscape and the sense of history and timelessness of this beautiful part of the world as reflected in Jo Shapcott’s poetry as well as (I hope) the wit and directness of her expression. The whole work though it has eleven songs still lasts only about 20 minutes the concision of the texts and the need to find musical equivalents to this was an important part of the concept of the piece.        John McCabe 2005

These Carol-Preludes were written in 2008 but the idea was in the composer's mind for many years before this. Essentially they revive the old style of the Chorale- Prelude but using carol tunes instead of hymns or chorales. They are derived from German French and English melodies some of the German tunes were found in my mother’s old school songbook from her schooldays in Germany after the First World War.