my day of carnage
Oliver Searle
Description
Instrumentation Genre Ensemble (with conductor)
Tag orchestra
Duration 5 minutes
Instrumentation Piccolo [1 player]; Flute [2 players]; Oboe [2 players]; Clarinet [2 players]; Bass clarinet [1 player]; Bassoon [2 players]; Contrabassoon [1 player]; Timpani [1 player]; Horn [4 players]; Trumpet [3 players]
I used to regularly get migraine headaches when I was younger, mainly caused by low blood-sugar
levels (which I thankfully identified and learned to control a little, as the years have passed). This short piece for orchrstra is built around short, pulsating fragments that overlap and confuse each other,
purposefully distracting from the occasional sonorous harmonies that attempt to struggle through
to the end. The title comes from a phrase spoken to me by a fellow sufferer, towards the end of a
long shift, whilst we were both working in a bar in Aberdeen during my student days, and seemed to
perfectly encapsulate how physically drained I often felt, after spending hours at work with a headache.
Instrumentation Genre Ensemble (with conductor)
Tag orchestra
Duration 5 minutes
Instrumentation Piccolo [1 player]; Flute [2 players]; Oboe [2 players]; Clarinet [2 players]; Bass clarinet [1 player]; Bassoon [2 players]; Contrabassoon [1 player]; Timpani [1 player]; Horn [4 players]; Trumpet [3 players]
Performances of this work
| Date | Venue | Performer | Link |
| 10/08/2004 (*premiére) | Konzerthaus, Berlin, Germany, DE |
Upcoming events
- 22 Oct 2026, 18:00
[Neil Smith: Try Try Try (soundfestival 2026)] - 28 Oct 2026, 18:00
[Composing for Media - NMS Peer to Peer session 3] - 29 Oct 2026, 19:30
[BBC SSO: Enrico Chapela's 'Antiphaser' (Concerto for electric violin and orchestera)] - 30 Oct 2026, 18:00
[James Weeks: weatherworld quartets (soundfestival 2026)] - 31 Oct 2026, 18:00
[Mimi Doulton (soprano): No Man is an Island (soundfestival 2026)]
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Events
- Late Night soundsession: Tom Macfadyen
- Composing for Media - NMS Peer to Peer session 3
- Neil Smith: Try Try Try (soundfestival 2026)
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- Noisy Nights – Call for Scores
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