Fretwork

Nipson, for counter-tenor and 5 viols. 1999

Commissioned by the BBC and first performed on 4th October 1999 at Norwich Cathedral, by Fretwork and Michael Chance

Nipson is written for a consort of viols (tr, tr, t, t, b.), and counter-tenor. The music falls into six sections, the first and last of which are a palendromic setting of a Byzantine palindrome engraved over a public fountain in Constantinople:

NIPSON ANOMEEMATA MEE MONAN OPSIN

Nipson is also an ikon of glory and repentance. The concept of inner silence is present throughout, as the composer contemplates his sins, whether voluntary of involuntary, manifest, or hidden. “Have mercy upon me, O God, have mercy upon me….”

NIPSON ANOMEEMATA MEE MONAN OPSIN
Cleanse the sins, not only the face.

Doxa see o Theos, doxa see.
Glory to You O God, glory to you.

Kyrie eleison.
Lord, have mercy.

Kyrie eleison.
Lord, have mercy.

Doxa see o Theos, doxa see.
Glory to You O God, glory to you.

NIPSON ANOMEEMATA MEE MONAN OPSIN.
Cleanse the sins, not only the face.

Duration: c. 20 mins Published by Chester Music Ltd. London

Apokatastasis, for counter-tenor, Tibetan temple bowls and 6 viols, 1999

A generous gift to Fretwork from the composer and first performed on 4th October 2000 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, by Fretwork and Michael Chance

Each soul is driven by a thirst for the absolute… the re-establishment of all things… souls after death pass through the manifold aeons… marriage of agape and eros… the state of universal existence… an abyss of joy and ecstacy.

The Greek word Apokatastasis means “a spiritual state of ecstacy”. The music should be performed with overwhelming ecstacy and joy.

I wrote Apokatastasis for Fretwork and Michael Chance.

Duration: c. 3 minutes

Published by Chester Music Ltd. London.

The Hidden Face, for counter-tenor, oboe and 6 viols. 1996

This work was commissioned by Richard Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia. It was first performed on 13th October 1996 at the Barbican Hall, London by Michael Chance (counter-tenor), Nicholas Daniel (oboe) and strings from the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox. It was first performed in the version for 6 viols instead of the violins and violas in 2000 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, with Michael Chance, Nicholas Daniel and Fretwork.

The Hidden Face is a prayer, for solo counter-tenor, oboe and a distant group of muted violins and violas. It trys to hold within it a whole Tradition with nothing personal or idiosyncratic, as in ikon painting, though this is a severe challenge for a composer working at the end of the 20th century. There was once a music which was not “interesting” in the way that nearly all Western music from the early middle ages is interesting. To be interesting, in the modern Western sense, it must not only be created, but made even more interesting by ” the obscene tyrant, the ego”.

Prayer, in the Orthodox East, is from the heart. The mind must have gone into the heart. We pray secretly, secret even from ourselves, since only the Divine Presence knows what is in our hearts, and this suggests a music of such humility, wrapped in a depth of inner silence and stillness of which we have no idea.

Paradise was made of peace, and so Adam could hear the Divine Voice. It is almost impossible now. We have to cast off all the received, intellectual, sophisticated garbage, and also all the preconceived knowledge of God that modern man has so disasterously collected, and listen with a heart that has become so soft that the Face is no longer Hidden.

But we are still at the beginning, so the title remains…. The Hidden Face.

Duration: c. 15 minutes

Published by Chester Music Ltd. London.

All three works by Sir John Tavener have been recorded by Fretwork with Michael Chance and Nicholas Daniel on Harmonia Mundi USA 907285