Description

The Symphonic Overture has its roots in my stage musical John Paul Jones, which premiered in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2001. Essentially a tragedy of ambition, the musical tells the story of the son of a Scottish gardener who became a hero of the American Revolution as the “father of the American navy”.

The Symphonic Overture, however, is not strictly programmatic, rather it is symphonic. It takes a number of the key musical-thematic ideas from the score of the stage show and transforms them kaleidoscopically, fragmenting and re-compiling them in unexpected and unpredictable ways.

The work is in three clearly discernible sections. The first interlaces the Scots jig in 6/8 (which opens the musical) with the anthemic “Freedom Arise” theme in 4/4 (which closes it), by means of metric modulation. The second, slower section is essentially a canon and variation on the “Home Again” ballad from Act I of the show, while the third and final section is a radical development of the “Battle of Flamborough Head” sequence, again from Act I of the musical.

My intention in writing this piece was to explore how essentially quite simple base material, from a highly tonal, “popular” musical work, can be transformed into something both tonally more ambiguous and technically more intricate while retaining the spiritual essence of the original material.

 

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Instrumentation Genre Ensemble (with conductor)

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Tag orchestra

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Duration 13 minutes

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Instrumentation Piccolo [1 player]; Flute [2 players]; Oboe [2 players]; Clarinet [2 players]; Bassoon [2 players]; Contrabassoon [1 player]; Horn [4 players]; Trumpet [2 players]; Trombone [2 players]; Tuba [1 player]; Timpani [1 player]; Percussion [3 players] (Cymbals, Slapstick, Triangle, Tubular Bells, Woodblock, Xylophone); Harp [1 player]; Piano [1 player]; Violin 1 (section) [10 players]; Violin 2 (section) [10 players]; Viola (section) [8 players]; Cello (section) [6 players]; Doublebass (section) [4 players]

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Performances of this work

Date	Venue	Performer	Link
01/04/2006 (*premiére)	Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK		Link to online catalogue