Edward Gregson

Shadow of Paradise was written specially for Melinda Maxwell. The work was completed in 2005 the same year that she recorded the work together with Richard Benjafield (percussion) for the Dutton label.'The work is based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan and I have attempted to capture some of the spirit of his highly evocative text in my music.It is structured in three main sections: the opening section (And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war) is dramatic in nature with the oboe announcing two ideas - the first a high repeated note rhythmic pattern (later with multiphonics) answered by six differentlypitched drums and temple blocks and the second a short lyrical phrase mainly built on thirds.In the second section (A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw…Could I revive within me Her symphony and song) the solo oboe transforms the repeated notes and thirds of the first section into a love song underpinned by the percussionist’s vibraphone and crotales.A short reprise of the very opening leads into the final section (Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice…) which mirrors the text with three short dances in chain form folk-like in character and increasingly climactic. A final reprise of the opening seems to suggest a violent end but the oboe’s echo of the love song answered by the percussionist’s crotales brings the work to a gentler conclusion.'            Edward Gregson - December 2011Instrumentation:Solo oboeSolo percussion (6 temple blocks 2 bongos 4 tom-toms vibraphone crotales 2 tambourines)

Par GREGSON EDWARD. The five song set the texts As I pass at dusk (Robert Kent), The day is gone (John Keats), Carol (C Day Lewis), Come live with me (C Day Lewis), and To my brother (Siegfried Sassoon). Also available for Mezzo-Soprano, or High Voice. / Musique contemporaine / Répertoire / Baryton et Piano

Welcome is a work composed by Edward Gregson, arranged for Upper Voices and Piano. It was originally composed for boys' voices, Organ, Brass and Percussion in 1996, but ten years later Gregson created a new version especially for the Kinder Children's Choir of the High Peak. This latter version appears here, and lasts around 4 minutes.The text of Welcome consists of the word 'Welcome', repeated numerous times in a variety of languages , from English to various European languages, to Hebrew and Arabic. Gregson's idea was to provide a fitting way to welcome a new and diverse audience into a new concert hall designed for a new Millennium.The voices are divided into as many as six parts in certain places, but it's left to the conductor to decide on how to distribute these parts, depending on the size and make-up of the choir. The work is suitable for performance by any mixture of upper voices, from children's choirs to female voices.In the January/February 2016 issue of Choir and Organ, Geoffrey Webber calls Welcome 'an ear-catching start for any concert programme.' / Choeur Et Piano

Full Score-The Horn Concerto was written in 1971 and was the first of the ten concertos Gregson has composed to date. It is dedicated to the English horn player Ifor James who died in 2004 and was originally written for brass band. However in 2013 Gregson was asked by Paul Klein Principal Horn of the Ulster Orchestra and BBC Northern Ireland to undertake an orchestral version for him.  Gregson decided to score the concerto for a late Haydn sized orchestra with the addition of a percussionist to add some colour to the texture. The concerto takes as its starting point the Mozartian model namely a sonata form opening movement a song-like slow movement and a jaunty rondo finale. The opening movement opens with a strident motif built on rising fourths announced by the soloist and answered by the orchestra. This pattern of ‘question/answer’ continues until a climactic moment breaks the tension and is followed by a lyrical second subject announced by the soloist over undulating rhythmic patterns on strings. The music is developed and recapitulated from these ideas with the lyrical idea returning via solo clarinet with horn answering in canon. The movement ends with the strident fourths this time in inversion. The slow movement is in tertiary form and opens with an expansive melody from the soloist over a repetitive harmonic and melodic pattern. This is expanded and developed building all the while in intensity until it is interrupted by cadenza-like passages on the horn and muted brass. After a brief climax the music subsides into a moment of emotional serenity before the opening melody returns this time on solo oboe with the horn interweaving its own answering melodic lines. The rondo finale is more light-hearted in mood with a catchy 6/8 tune at its heart. It is twice interrupted first by an idea built on long held chromatic notes from the soloist against a highly rhythmic backdrop (wind brass and snare drum) then by a slower more thoughtful melodic idea. However

Welcome is a work composed by Edward Gregson arranged for Upper Voices and Piano. It was originally composed for boys' voices Organ Brass and Percussion in 1996 but ten years later Gregson created a new version especially for the Kinder Children's Choir of the High Peak. This latter version appears here and lasts around 4 minutes. The text of Welcome consists of the word 'Welcome' repeated numerous times in a variety of languages from English to various European languages to Hebrew and Arabic. Gregson's idea was to provide a fitting way to welcome a new and diverse audience into a newconcert hall designed for a new Millennium. The voices are divided into as many as six parts in certain places but it's left to the conductor to decide on how to distribute these parts depending on the size and make-up of the choir. The work is suitable for performance by any mixture of upper voices from children's choirs to female voices. In the January/February 2016 issue of Choir & Organ Geoffrey Webber calls Welcome 'an ear-catching start for any concert programme.'

This work dedicated to the composer Paul Patterson can be performed by either Choir Piano Duet and Percussion or Choir Organ and Percussion. Percussion Part is available: NOV160278-01

Triptych for solo Violin with optional Bodhran.1. A Dionysian Dialogue2. Song to Aphrodite3. A Celtic Bacchanal

In memory of Christopher Rowland. Originally a concerto for Cello and chamber orchestra now for Cello with a Piano reduction of the orchestral part.The concerto is in four movements which are played without a break: Meditation Intermezzo Toccata-Scherzo and Song. The work lasts for some 18 minutes and was scored for two oboes two horns timpani (doubling tubular bells) and strings(found here in a Cello/Piano form). It is organised in one large arch-shaped structure with two fast inner movements flanked by two outer slow ones. The solo cello opens the work reflectively and introduces core melodic material which is continuously developed throughout theconcerto. Gradually the strings enter then wind and timpani and build a pyramid twelve-note chord at the peak of which there is a dramatic climax. The music then subsides (solo cello again) but links to the two faster middle movements. The second movement Intermezzo has an ABA structure and in its middle section quotes the opening of Shostakovich's Third String Quartet (written in the same year as Christopher Rowland was born!). Indeed the ghost of Shostakovich looms large throughout the concerto in more ways than one. The Toccata-Scherzo is energetic and rhythmically-charged again using an ABA structure. Here the writing for solo cello is quite virtuosic but not I hope in a shallow sense. The music builds inexorably towards a powerful climax underpinned by the opening twelve-note chord's re-appearance together with a violent outburst from the timpani at which point a tonal resolution (on G) arrives through a pianissimo held chord on strings which leads directly to the final movement - Song. And so the music arrives at its emotional heart through a simple melody (present in other forms throughout the work) announced by solo cello at the very top of its register against a quiet backdrop of horns and strings. A solo oboe enters with cello in canonic reply and all the time the music builds in texture and

'As the title suggests my Serenata Notturna evokes the atmosphere of night music. Following a reflective opening where the pitch development outlines a twelve-note series the music gradually becomes more agitated developing into a kind of danse macabre eventually reaching a powerful climax. The music then subsides into a much more tranquil atmosphere and the previous dissonant material transposes itself into a simple melody (like a lullaby) uttered by the cello the outline of which both melodically and in terms of the accompaniment figuration has already been present in the piece since the beginning. Thus the turmoil of the first part of the work becomes transfiguredinto something much more peaceful - hence the quotation that prefaces the score: 'out of darkness cometh light'.'Edward Gregson