Minimalist composer Howard Skempton launched PRS for Music Foundation’s New Music 20x12 Olympics programme on New Year’s Eve at a London church.
Together with the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, he performed his Five Rings Triples piece to a packed congregation at All Saints Church in Kingston upon Thames, while churches across the country performed simultaneous renditions to mark the beginning of Britain's Olympic year.
Skempton has worked as a composer, accordionist and music publisher since the 60s, building a reputation for his avant-garde arrangements and creative approach to the classical discipline.
Together with the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, he performed his Five Rings Triples piece to a packed congregation at All Saints Church in Kingston upon Thames, while churches across the country performed simultaneous renditions to mark the beginning of Britain's Olympic year.
Skempton has worked as a composer, accordionist and music publisher since the 60s, building a reputation for his avant-garde arrangements and creative approach to the classical discipline.
He studied in London with experimental composer Cornelius Cardew and went on to form the Scratch Orchestra with him and Michael Parsons. Since then, Skempton has created more than 300 works, including many minimal solo pieces for piano or accordion, which he refers to as ‘the central nervous system’ of his work. Below, he talks to PRS for Music Foundation about Five Rings Triples.
New Music 20x12 is a UK-wide commissioning programme consisting of twenty new pieces of music, each of 12 minutes in length, making up part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
They have been inspired by the dynamism of Olympic and Paralympic sports, and have offered British-based composers a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a musical work that will contribute to the global celebration later this year.
Each piece will receive an individual premiere at concert halls, arts centres, festivals and public spaces across the UK during 2012, and will also be performed from 13 to 15 July at Southbank Centre, London, as part of the wider Cultural Olympiad.
Five Rings Triples will be followed by four other showcases throughout January, including the HandsFree project tomorrow, 5 January, created by composer Anna Meredith with the National Youth Orchestra. Together they will make music without instruments, using handclaps, body percussion and beat-boxing instead.
Mark-Anthony Turnage, together with the Irene Taylor Trust, will follow on 19 January with Beyond This – two performances at Lowdham Grange Prison, Nottinghamshire. A group of prisoners from the prison will work with Turnage to write, orchestrate and record a piece of music that celebrates the diversity of British culture.
Composer Luke Carver Goss and Black Dyke Band will then perform Pure Gold: a 4x3 Relay Race on 27 January at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Goss was commissioned by the award-winning Black Dyke Band to write the piece using the structure of a relay race. The piece will be divided into four three-minute 'legs': power, speed, losing ground and finally, triumph, to tell the tale of success through team work and sporting pride. Goss will be working with poet Ian McMillan and Yorkshire Youth Brass Band.
The final New Music 20x12 piece to receive its premiere in January is XX/XY by Liz Liew and Andy Leung. On 29 January, the pair will perform their experimental piece in Trafalgar Square, London. The work was inspired by the competition of life, from the battle of the sexes (female XX and male XY chromosomes) to the competitive spirit of the Olympics and Paralympics.
New Music 20x12 was initiated by private patrons Jillian Barker and David Cohen and is being organised by PRS for Music Foundation in partnership with the BBC, LOCOG, NMC Recordings and Sound and Music.
More from M on London 2012:
For full details on the New Music 20x12 initiative, click here.
To read the Mind, Body, Spirit and Music: Going for Gold feature about British music at London 2012, click here.
For an exclusive interview with David Arnold, the musical director of the Official Closing Ceremony, click here.
New Music 20x12 is a UK-wide commissioning programme consisting of twenty new pieces of music, each of 12 minutes in length, making up part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
They have been inspired by the dynamism of Olympic and Paralympic sports, and have offered British-based composers a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a musical work that will contribute to the global celebration later this year.
Each piece will receive an individual premiere at concert halls, arts centres, festivals and public spaces across the UK during 2012, and will also be performed from 13 to 15 July at Southbank Centre, London, as part of the wider Cultural Olympiad.
Five Rings Triples will be followed by four other showcases throughout January, including the HandsFree project tomorrow, 5 January, created by composer Anna Meredith with the National Youth Orchestra. Together they will make music without instruments, using handclaps, body percussion and beat-boxing instead.
Mark-Anthony Turnage, together with the Irene Taylor Trust, will follow on 19 January with Beyond This – two performances at Lowdham Grange Prison, Nottinghamshire. A group of prisoners from the prison will work with Turnage to write, orchestrate and record a piece of music that celebrates the diversity of British culture.
Composer Luke Carver Goss and Black Dyke Band will then perform Pure Gold: a 4x3 Relay Race on 27 January at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Goss was commissioned by the award-winning Black Dyke Band to write the piece using the structure of a relay race. The piece will be divided into four three-minute 'legs': power, speed, losing ground and finally, triumph, to tell the tale of success through team work and sporting pride. Goss will be working with poet Ian McMillan and Yorkshire Youth Brass Band.
The final New Music 20x12 piece to receive its premiere in January is XX/XY by Liz Liew and Andy Leung. On 29 January, the pair will perform their experimental piece in Trafalgar Square, London. The work was inspired by the competition of life, from the battle of the sexes (female XX and male XY chromosomes) to the competitive spirit of the Olympics and Paralympics.
New Music 20x12 was initiated by private patrons Jillian Barker and David Cohen and is being organised by PRS for Music Foundation in partnership with the BBC, LOCOG, NMC Recordings and Sound and Music.
More from M on London 2012:
For full details on the New Music 20x12 initiative, click here.
To read the Mind, Body, Spirit and Music: Going for Gold feature about British music at London 2012, click here.
For an exclusive interview with David Arnold, the musical director of the Official Closing Ceremony, click here.
