About ten years ago I was sorting through my music as preparation for setting up a new website about my work. When I came to my Eight Miniatures (1997 – 2001) I was vividly reminded of the circumstances in which they were written – they were a turning point for me after a period of compositional difficulty. I found myself thinking about the circumstances in which other composers might write miniatures. I phoned my friend – the late Peter Reynolds – as he was a master of the miniature as a composer and is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the composer of the world’s shortest opera. We talked for a while and agreed that miniatures are written quickly and therefore have a snapshot/postcard feel about them. The conversation moved on to miniatures by neglected composers thus constituting postcards from neglected or forgotten pathways through musical history. The idea of making a CD covering a hundred years of British piano miniatures then occurred to us.
It was Peter who suggested I contact pianist Duncan Honeybourne due to his encyclopaedic knowledge of British Music. By now, we had decided to try to cover a hundred years of British Piano Miniatures and Duncan offered to meet me at the Steinway Rooms in London to go through some possibilities. Duncan brought three of four pieces from every decade to the meeting and we spent the next four hours going through them all and made our choices. All the music prior to the Peter Racine Fricker on the CD is from Duncan’s collection. I wanted the Fricker and the Skempton as I felt they made distinctive additions. Peter offered to write a new selection on Miniatures to bring us right up to date and my Eight Miniatures fitted nicely between these and the Skempton. We had a CD.
The recording was done at the National Centre for Early Music by Jeremy Wells with Duncan on piano. When it was completed, we offered it to the Naxos Grand Piano label and I was delighted when they accepted it but sad that Peter – who had died suddenly some months earlier – had not lived to see this.
The CD went on to do very well with performances and national broadcasts in various countries including a 45-minute documentary on the CD in Austria. Journalist Paul Morley included it in his book A Sound Mind and four of the tracks – Moonbeams by Leo Livens, Quavers by Howard Skempton and my Miniatures Nos 2 and 4 went viral on Spotify securing over 8 millions streams between them.
When David Hammond and myself came to plan this concert, we initially thought of playing the whole CD. On reflection we thought it would be more in the spirit of the project to have half the concert from the CD and the other half of complimentary miniatures that would’ve fitted very well on the CD itself. David Hammond selected these and I think he has done an excellent job. This also draws attention to the sheer wealth of miniatures that there are in the piano repertoire. The concert will include a new piano miniature from YSJU post graduate composer Ewan East, one of the four local composers – along with David Breslin, William Baines and David Hammond himself – who are featured in the concert.
David Hammond will perform: A concert exploring the jewels of neglected British composers on Friday 4th October at 1:00pm at the York Unitarian Chapel. For tickets and full programme details visit here.