Dates

• 5 Sep 2025, 7 p.m., Orkney Theatre, KGS, Kirkwall, Scotland, UK, Online programme

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Repertoire Suite for Solo Violin, by John Purser; Clavier Sonata, by John Purser

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Description

There are numbers beneath the surface in music: you can count notes, or bars, or the words and letters of accompanying text – and so, says musicologist and composer Dr John Purser, music offers a rich potential for composers interested in patterns of numbers. And he provides examples from three Scottish manuscripts over the centuries – the late 13th-century Inchcolm Antiphoner, the 16th-century Carver Choirbook, and from the late 19th century William Wallace’s Creation Symphony. He shows number patterns in music and words, including uses of the Golden Mean also found in visual art. Iain Campbell (piano) plays the 2nd movement of John Purser’s Clavier Sonata, and Elizabeth Sullivan (violin) plays movements from John Purser’s Suite for Solo Violin.

John Purser was the creator of BBC Radio Scotland’s 50-part series of programmes Scotland’s Music, which encompassed the whole of Scotland’s music from the 3rd millennium BC to the present day.

“Nothing like this cornucopia of discovery, this magisterial survey of a nation’s musical heritage has been attempted, let alone achieved with such distinction and authority,” wrote Scotland on Sunday’s reviewer of the accompanying book.

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Performers Iain Campbell, Elizabeth Sullivan

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Promoter Orkney International Science Festival

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Submitted by Ewan Robertson