Portfolios of Original Compositions

Abstract

This portfolio consists of eight compositions as listed below plus a commentary: - String Quartet No.2 (Violin I, Violin II, Viola and Cello, 2018-2019) - Into the Darkness (Flute, Clarinet and Piano, 2019) - Concertino (Solo Piano and Chamber Ensemble, 2019-2020) - Rain, Steam and Speed (Solo Piano, 2020) - Piano Quartet (Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello, 2020) - Comfort…(Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello, 2020) - Piano Concerto (Solo Piano and Orchestra, 2020-2021) - Der Vogel kämpft sich aus dem Ei... (Solo Clarinet and Orchestra, 2021-2022) The commentary provides a detailed explication of the compositional process and research aims and objectives of the compositions. It begins by exploring the technique of stratification in chapter two, together with the relevant outputs, namely String Quartet No.2 and Into the Darkness for clarinet, flute and piano. The journey towards writing a piano concerto starts in earnest with Rain, Steam and Speed for solo piano in chapter 3, with which I sought to establish a personal original approach to piano writing. The relationship between piano and ensemble or orchestra was developed with the Concerto for piano and 14 instruments, Piano Quartet and Comfort… , and this is discussed in chapter 4. Chapter 5 deals with the Piano Concerto which is the summatory piece, integrating all the research aims. In addition to the Piano Concerto, I added a Clarinet Concerto, Der Vogel kämpft sich aus dem Ei... as something of an envoi. This is because I had the opportunity to compose the piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra Young Composer Series. Throughout the commentary I relate a lot of the research to my status as composer/pianist and how my own personal pianism developed during the PhD.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Philip Grange (Supervisor) & Camden Reeves (Supervisor)