Churd's Classical Music Page

This page contains a motley assortment of bits and bobs relating to my main extra-curricular interest, which is classical music. As far as I'm concerned, having an Internet page is an opportunity for gross self-indulgence, so if you are actually interested in serious information on classical music I suggest you try something else (although there are programme notes to go with some of the sound files). There are some pointers to other classical music sites on my links page, which may or may not be of any use ...

Contents of this page

Dull words from me. Just to set the scene.
Sound files. Excerpts of various things that I like, some with programme notes to go with them.
Compositions. Purely for my own ego.

To Richard's home page.

Some dull words

This section can be regarded as an explanation of / apology for what follows.

There was a time when I spent more of my time involved in classical music-making activities than I did doing what I was supposed to be doing i.e. studying. Alas, now I'm paid to be on duty at my desk each day, so have had to cut down on all of that stuff, although I still get to play (violin) and conduct occasionally. The last major thing I did was to conduct a run of West Side Story at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London (December 1995). OK, so it was a student show, but it sounds good (and, believe it or not, was, even though i do say so myself). Some day I'll get around to putting some excerpts up here.

I'm mostly interested in orchestral and instrumental music. Choirs are naff. So you won't find anything to do with choral music here.

Main periods of interest:
Favourite nationalities:
Favourite composers:
Most hated composers:
Most under-rated composers (in my humble opinion):
Favourite pieces (in no particular order):

That lot seems to bear precious little relation to the rest of the page in general, so this section isn't much of an explanation. Which means it must be an apology.

I'm really really sorry. There.

In case anybody wonders, the background to this page is a scan of Bach's autograph to the first movement of the first Sonata for unaccompanied violin, BWV 1001. Can't remember where I got it from. Download it here if you want.

Sound files

All of these files are in SUN Audio format (.au). Some of them have been gleaned from elsewhere on the net; I can't remember where they came from. The remainder are recordings of performances either conducted (with the Manchester University Chamber Orchestra in 1991/2) or played (with Pauline at the piano), by yours truly. The quality of these is not great, and the files are mono rather than stereo, but they're better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Although maybe that's just me being bigheaded ... it saves me having to worry about recording copyright anyway.

From the net

Smetana: The Moldau (Vltava). This is almost complete (except for the last 2 chords!) but has been split into 3 files (not by me):
- Part 1 (1.8 Mb).
- Part 2 (0.7 Mb).
- Part 3 (3.3 Mb).
Schnittke: String quartet. This is a very small fragment (0.2 Mb) of the third quartet (thanks to Gonzalo Saavedra for identifying this for me, all the way from Chile!)
J. Strauss II: The Blue Danube (4.6 Mb). Complete.
Walton: First Symphony (0.7 Mb). Brief extract from the end of the second movement.

Personal recordings

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7. One of my all-time favourite pieces. Unfortunately the second movement recorded really badly onto the computer, and the orchestra made a complete dog's breakfast of most of the fourth movement, so I've chosen the following excerpts:
- First movement (2.3 Mb). Starts at the repeat of the exposition section, and continues through to the beginning of the recapitulation.
- Third movement (4.6 Mb). Complete.
- Fourth movement (0.8 Mb). From somewhere in the middle, after the orchestra had woken up to the tempo and before it killed them off ...
Programme notes here.
Beethoven: Sonata in D Op.12 No.1 for violin and piano
- First movement (1.3 Mb). This excerpt is the first time through the exposition.
Hindemith: Sonata in Es Op.11 No.1 for violin and piano
- First movement (0.6 Mb), starting about halfway through.
Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite 2.
- Third movement (1.2 Mb). Middle section. Knee-trembling, especially when the trombones enter. The effect isn't quite the same on a diddy little computer speaker though :-(
- Fourth movement (2.4 Mb). Complete (what the hell, it's fun). The bits for 2 players on one harpsichord haven't come out very well, so you'll have to imagine them.
Programme notes here.
Smetana: Aus der Heimat for violin and piano.
- Second movement (1.6 Mb), first half.
Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen (3.1 Mb). Excerpt lasting about 6 minutes starting just before the first recapitulation of opening material.
Bach (arr. Webern): Ricercar (1.4 Mb) from The Musical Offering . Webern's arrangement is of the 6-part ricercar; this extract is from the beginning of the piece to the beginning of the first major episode.

Compositions

From time to time I get the chance to put pen to paper and write some music of my own. Output has fallen recently though, what with having to do a proper job as well (well, if you can call an academic post a proper job ...). For the moment, here's a catalogue of my stuff; I'll put some sound files up as and when I get the time.

Six-note Suite (June 1987, revised April 1996): A collection of six short pieces for piano (moderate difficulty), using a scale with only six notes. Hence the devastatingly original title. I still regard this as one of my best works, although it's not exactly serious ... and although the scale it uses definitely has something going for it, you wouldn't want a whole evening of it!
King Arthur (completed September 1988): A massively over-the-top symphonic poem that could only have been written by an angst-ridden 19-year old ... it does have good bits, though, and I still pillage it for material on occasion. In any case, you have to be honest and own up to these things!
Concertlet No.1 for 2 violins and no orchestra (March 1989): Harmless fun ... moderate difficulty.
Piano sonata (July 1989): Of variable quality, but definitely with good bits. Reasonably difficult.
Arrangement of Martinu: Intermezzo (1990).: The Intermezzo was originally for violin and piano. This arrangement is for wind ensemble (2 FL., 2 Ob., 2 Clt., 2 Bsn., 2 Horns) and timpani. Moderate difficulty.
Canonicish (March 1991).: A chamber piece for 3 alto saxophones, trombone, piano, bassoon, flute, violin, horn and trumpet. My only foray into the realms of minimalism. It was originally written as a computer program, put on everybody's machines in an office where I worked to start up automatically whenever they switched on: by making it a bit like a canon (hence the title), the programming was very simple and the end result sounded actually quite reasonable, although the tolerance of my work colleagues gradually wore down ...
Elegy for violin and piano (April 1991).: Moderately difficult.
Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (completed August 1992).: My best piece to date. Unfortunately I've never heard it ... piano transcription completed February 1995.
Concertlet No.2 for 2 violins and no orchestra (October 1992).: Same comments as Concertlet No.1.
Songs without words for mixed choir (November 1992 - March 1993): Four wordless pieces for mixed choir. Very difficult. They are numbers 2 to 5 of a set of 5, but I've somehow never got round to writing the first ...
Scherzo for piano (July 1993).: This is part of a second piano sonata, upon which I've been working since 1993 as and when time allows. Very difficult.

Mail me with suggestions or comments.

To Richard's home page.