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”
The recording for Sam Cave’s CD is all done now, and Metiér (a division of Divine Records) are due to release the disc early in 2019. I’m honoured that Sam has recorded my Guitar Sonata and Second Guitar Sonata to include on the disc; these are pieces which I wrote specially for Sam, and he’s…Continue Reading “Sam Cave forthcoming CD release on Metiér: Guitar Sonatas”
I’ve been working with the talented Zheng Yang for almost two years now; I have given her so many drafts of this piece! With all the struggles to make my musical ideas playable on the sheng, complete with meticulously bar-by-bar solving of near intractable fingering problems, we’re nearing the full premiere of “Sculpture in Melody”…Continue Reading “Sculpture in Melody for traditional solo sheng 《线性雕塑》，为传统笙而作(2015-6) – forthcoming premiere taster!”
I worked with the director Cao Jing on her production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis in Summer 2015. I was so impressed by her imagination and talent, I was clear that I wanted to work with her on an improvised performance involving music, dance and theatre. This eventually became Ling, which we performed (each time utterly different)…Continue Reading “Ling 《灵》Improvised music, theatre and dance performance (2015/6)”
I worked on the musical accompaniment for this Chinese language production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis in Summer 2015. I composed some new music for ‘cello/multi-tracked ‘cello, as well as using some of my other pieces. I wrote the ‘cello pieces as canons, first recording a single voice and later overlaying copies of the same recording to…Continue Reading “Theatre Music for Sarah Kane 4.48 Psychosis 萨拉·凯恩：4.48精神崩溃配乐”
AANMI premiered Dances in Time and Vertical Space in the concert hall of the Central Conservatory of Music on 25th May 2015, as part of the Beijing Modern Music Festival. This piece is a kind of baroque dance suite, with the different dances superimposed upon each other in different mensurations and, as the piece progresses,…Continue Reading “Dances in Time and Vertical Space (2015) for solo violin and six instruments”
My two guitar sonatas were both written for and dedicated to Sam Cave. Thanks to Sam, these two pieces have become my most often performed compositions! Sam is preparing a professional recording of both sonatas, which I eagerly await. In the meantime, I post here the videos of Sam’s earlier performances (from his visit to…Continue Reading “Guitar Sonatas 1&2”
Dedicated to my mother. Performance in Southampton, 2012.
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”
Originalmelodie reflects upon lyricism in music, and upon the boundary between independent melodic line/contrapuntal ‘voice’ and figuration/accompaniment. It is also a tapestry of reminiscences, visiting Gustav Mahler, Charles Ives, Kaikhosru Sorabji, Ferruccio Busoni, traditional Taiwanese song, Jean Barraqué, Brian Ferneyhough and Felix Mendelssohn; only the last of these is quoted directly, whose Songs without Words were first published in London as Original Melodies for…Continue Reading “Originalemelodie (2010) for solo piano”
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzE2NDA2MjA3Ng==.html?spm=a2hzp.8253869.0.0 Premiered by Richard Jones at the Composer Portrait Concert, Turner Sims concert hall, Southampton 2012.
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”