Michael Berkeley Catalogue

Chamber Ensemble
Seven
Chamber ensemble (seven players) 9780193359963
Seven is founded on the further elaboration of a
simple phrase used in Second Still Life. As the number
2 is significant in that piece, the number 7 is prevalent
throughout Seven: the work is for seven players and is
seven minutes in duration.
7 minutes
Shooting stars
Symphonic wind ensemble
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193356153
The composer describes this short piece for symphonic
wind ensemble as having ‘a feel of the fair ground, or
bright lights, and of being jostled’, and recalls childhood
days in the shooting gallery when the targets were placed
at the centre of a star. Having witnessed a star flying across
the night sky whilst he was working on the piece, and since
this short piece for symphonic wind can act as a prelude
to the more substantial Slow Dawn, he chose the title
Shooting Stars.
4 minutes
Slow Dawn
Wind band
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193356146
Slow Dawn is a gentle and evocative piece for wind band.
Berkeley depicts the gradual appearance of the sun (in the
form of the tuba), ‘shafts of light and playful reflections’
which accompany the increasing warmth of day, the ‘music
of midday’ suggesting ‘the savage anger of heat in foreign
climes with stabbing beams of light’, and the final descent
of the sun at the end of the day.
9 minutes
String Quartet No. 1
String quartet
Score* 9780193554931
Set of parts* 9780193554955
*Available from June Emerson Wind Music
String Quartet No. 2
String quartet
Score 9780193554986
Set of parts 9780193412354
Berkeley’s second string quartet uses a free, random
presentation of thematic material. There is a sharp contrast
between the tight and rhythmic central section and the
final passage which dispenses with barlines altogether,
providing a fascinating journey through interrelated and
continuous sections.
String Trio
Violin, viola, and cello
Score 9780193554801
Set of parts 9780193554818
This two movement work is dedicated to Richard Rodney
Bennett, at one time Michael Berkeley’s composition
teacher. A three bar theme introduces the first movement
which is worked almost entirely in step-by-step crotchets.
The Allegro that follows is more spiky and angular but has
a lyrical central passage in 3/8.
15 minutes
Torque and Velocity
String quartet
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193556546
This is Michael Berkeley’s fifth composition for string
quartet. Berkeley says that it was the Takács Quartet’s
special qualities of ‘exhilarating vigour coupled to innate
musicianship, as exemplified in their playing of the Bartók
quartets, which helped dictate the nature of the piece’.
15 minutes
William Walton arr. Berkeley
Touch her soft lips and part
String octet 9780193359697
Originally part of Walton’s film score to Henry V composed
in 1943, Touch her soft lips and part has been taken from
the original string version and arranged beautifully by
Michael Berkeley for a smaller ensemble.
2.5 minutes
Winter Fragments
Voice and chamber ensemble
fl. (+picc.), ob. (+c.a.), cl. (+b.cl.), hp, vln, vla, vc
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193556522
Seven setting of poems on the theme of winter.
‘The double meaning title of these pieces came naturally,
partly because I was at that time considering an opera
project based on Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, partly
because the music was largely written in a frozen Welsh
landscape, and partly because I wanted to write short,
spare pieces that combine to create an overall aspect of
winter. - Michael Berkeley
Winter Fragments was first performed by the Nash
Ensemble, Jean Rigby, and Thomas Adès on 5th March,
1995 at The Purcell Room, London.
19 minutes
Coronach
String orchestra
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193620261
Study score* 9780193620285
Coronach is a Scottish highland lament. This piece
belongs to a group of pieces written by Berkeley in the
late 1980s which explore the complex emotions of grief,
rage, and anger. (The other pieces are Fierce Tears I and
II and Keening.) This rhythmic piece is an ideal work for
advanced young string groups. Commissioned by the 1988
Prestiegne Festival.
*Available from June Emerson Wind Music
13 minutes
Gethsemani Fragment
String orchestra
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193620544
Based on the biblical passage of the Garden of
Gethsemane. ‘My piece, while abstract rather than
programmatic, simply attempts to capture a brief glimpse
of the gnawing and nagging doubts racing through the
mind of Christ. One does not, I think, have to be religious to
identify with this touching moment.’ - Michael Berkeley
10 minutes
Glass Tears
Shakuhachi, two kotos, and string orchestra
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193555297
‘The shakuhachi (bamboo flute) has intrigued me for many
years and in particular its breathy, almost human quality.
The koto on the other hand seems to combine aspects of
the harp, zither, harpsichord and cimbalom and is capable
of adding a metallic glint to the texture. Bringing these
contrasting colours together with a string orchestra was
a fascinating challenge compounded by my decision to
write a piece that was not simply contemplative, which the
shakuhachi might initially suggest, but contrasting in both
mood and tempi.’ - Michael Berkeley
15 minutes
String Orchestra
Meditations
String orchestra
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193620278
Meditations is Michael Berkeley’s first acknowledged
orchestral work. It was written at the beginning of 1975
and was the work that led to Berkeley, a late developer
as a composer, doing post graduate studies with Richard
Rodney Bennett.
The piece is called ‘Meditations’ because its atmosphere is
essentially contemplative, though the nature of the subject
is far from being continuously passive. Another reason for
the title is the inspiration behind the thematic material -
though the actual melodies are original, they use rhythmic
and melodic patterns suggested by Gregorian chant which
Berkeley sang every day as a chorister at Westminster
Cathedral.
14 minutes
Suite: Vision of Piers Ploughman
Two horns, percussion, piano, and string orchestra
Conductor’s score and parts on hire 9780193620414
- Strife - The Vision - Pier’s Theme -
This three-movement work is based on the Medieval
allegorical tale of Piers Plowman.
12 minutes
String Orchestra
18 minutes
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