Explore the music of English composer George Holloway
I was honoured to be invited to give the keynote lecture at the 23rd International Music Theory Conference: Principles of Music Composing- “National Versus Global”, held at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) from November 15th to 17th 2023. The title of my lecture was Composition as an extension of ethnomusicology: the…Continue Reading “Keynote Lecture at 23rd International Music Theory Conference, LMTA”
I finished my PhD at the University of Southampton in 2011, and passed the viva with minimal corrections in early 2012. It has been sitting on my computer (and in the Hartley Library at S’ton) all that time, and I thought I ought to put it up here, as it contains a lot of ideas…Continue Reading “PhD Portfolio and Commentary (2012)- download link”
This piece, commissioned by the Druskomanija Festival in Lithuania, presents a collage of rarefied sound images. The “images” are static textures in constant flux, combinations of looping, contrasting material in different instruments. Each “image” was paired with fixed shots of natural phenomena, such as wind, waves or clouds moving across the sky (reflected in the…Continue Reading “Crystal Images (Cardigan Bay, Summer 2015)- for 9 instruments and video projection”
My programme note on this piece from 2012: Ondas (“Waves”) sets a love poem by Federico Garcia Lorca. I was interested in the image of the “concentric waves” which the speaker says are like the waves in his heart when his beloved speaks. I wrote a sort of circular melody (the same melody, in fact…Continue Reading “Ondas (2006-7) for solo soprano”
Bird Songs (2007-9) “Fifty-Nine Swans” (Yeats) “Black Rook in Rainy Weather” (Plath) “The Hierarchies of Sound” (Evans) I’ve uploaded 3 performances of my song cycle for mezzo and piano, “Bird Songs”. Each time working on this song cycle from scratch with a different singer was extraordinarily fun, and a tremendous challenge and learning experience. I…Continue Reading “Bird Songs (2007-9) song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano”
In my guise as tenor and opera performer, from 2010/2011:
I wrote this piece for the Lithuanian Oboe Quartet, with an offstage bassoon appearing late in the piece! It was premiered on the 20th May 2012 in Holy Trinity Church, Auletikos, Lithuania, as part of the Druskomanija international contemporary music fesitval. There is a version for four oboes and bassoon; this alternative version (and the…Continue Reading “Druskininkanonas (2011) for double reed quintet”
I wrote this piece originally for the Southampton University Strings in 2007-8. I remember clearly finishing the manuscript at my parents’ house in Mwnt, Ceredigion, at around 10pm on New Year’s Eve of 2007. The name comes from an Ambrosian plainsong, “media vita in morte sumus”, “in the midst of life we are in…Continue Reading “Media Vita (2007-8) for string orchestra”
Oxonia, performed by Music Visualisation Laboratory, Profsajungu Rumai, Vilnius, Lithuania, 18th September 2009, as part of the Vilnius European City of Culture 2009. http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzE2NDE2Nzc0MA==.html?spm=a2hzp.8253869.0.0
This recording is Julian Jacobsen’s intensely expressive and exacting performance from 2007 (Turner Sims Concert Hall). This was the first piece I completed during my Masters study with Michael Finnissy; it was on the basis of this piece that I was chosen for the SPNM Shortlist (2006-9). The final form of the piece was…Continue Reading “Selected “early” works”