Geoffrey Alvarez: harp works

 

 

excerpt • digital video realisation • duration 26′ 22″

Composerʼs note

 

Ceridwenʼs Cauldron presents material initially conceived for Branʼs Singing Head, a song-cycle setting poems drawn from the Mabinogion, for soprano, clarinet and harp; the result is five miniature tone poems each focusing on certain aspects of Celtic mythology: 

 

1: Cerridwen’s Cauldron

2: Morgan le Fey’s Apple Trees

3: Bridget’s Wedding

4: Epona’s Black Night

5: Bran’s White Tower

 

 

download licence: £3 each

printed copy of full score • UK postage included: £15

material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez

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Branʼs Singing Head

Twelve scenes from the Mabinogion

 

for soprano, harp and clarinet facsimile of score as used in the premiere by

the Spitalfields Studio Workshop Theatre June 21 1996.

 

France M. Lynch, Fiona Baines, sopranos,

Elizabeth Drew, clarinet,

Tudor Eames, harp,

Geoffrey Alvarez conductor

 

1: Bran’s Arrival              

2: Branwen’s Wedding 

3: Evnyssien the sly one’s revenge 

4: The cauldron of rebirth

5: Branwen’s Song 

6: Bran to the rescue 

7: Evnyssien the sly murders the sacks 

8: The death of Prince Gwern 

9: Bran’s Demand

10: The singing birds of Rhiannon

11: The company rests at Gwales

12: Bran’s great head is buried

 

libretto

 

facsimile

 

recording of the opening bars of the premiere

 

material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez

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Obsessions For flute, viola and harp

 

 

 

Obsessions was written in 1990 and was awarded the

Bernard Shore Composition award in the

Royal Overseas League Competition in 1990.

 

The first performance was by the Aline Brewer Trio

at the Royal Overseas League in 1992

 

excerpt • premiere recording • duration 6′ 52″

 

Material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez

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excerpt • digital realisation • duration 12′ 04″

Composerʼs note

 

Having conducted Diana Burrellʼs Flute Concerto with flautist Rehanne Brown, and worked with Polish harpist Elżbieta Baklarz and Maciej Lulek in works by myself and Bogusław Schaeffer at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London, I considered the possibility of a work taking full advantage of their combined skills. With three soloists  involved, this suggested a  baroque concerto grosso rather than a classical concerto: there is indeed a ʻcontinuoʼ part provided by a second harp providing a cushion of sound for Robert Gravesʼ Triple Goddess of Old Europe to recline on.

 

 

download licence: £1.50 each

printed copy of full score • UK postage included: £15

 

Orchestral material available for hire or purchase from Geoffrey Alvarez

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