The PRS for Music Foundation has announced the twenty UK based composers who were chosen to write 12-minute works for the New Music Biennial 2014, the successor of New Music 20x12. The commissions, ranging from contemporary classical, folk and jazz to world, electronic and urban music, will be performed at London’s Southbank Centre and in Glasgow in July and August 2014.

David Sawer was commissioned by Onyx Brass to write a piece for brass quintet that will be presented in informal and free outdoor performances across Britain’s historic bandstands, outdoor festivals, and public spaces, intending to bring contemporary music out of the concert hall and on to the village green.

Performances of all works will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and made available via digital download by NMC Recordings.

David Sawer at the world première of Flesh and Blood at the Barbican.

View the full vocal score

“Flesh and Blood was a great success, a 23-minute “dramatic scene” by David Sawer on the subject of love and war, a soldier departing from his mother. If Howard Barker’s text is sometimes impenetrable, Sawer’s music reveals all, vivid and explicit enough to set an opera before us, with even these singers’ respective ages being reasonably close to realistic”

Ausschnitt aus Colin Andersons Kritik

The world première of the Rumpelstiltskin Suite will take place on 6 April at the Wigmore Hall in London.

David Sawer on the piece for ensemble: “The Rumpelstiltskin Suite is shorter than the original ballet [Rumpelstiltskin], it’s about 25 to 30 minutes long. The original score is divided into eight movements, and from these original eight movements I’ve taken six and shortened them to make the suite. So it tells the story still, but in a much more compressed manner.”

Rumpelstiltskin Suite
for ensemble | 25’
1 1 2 1 - 1 1 0 1 - hp, vln, vla, vc, cb
world première: 6/4/2013 Wigmore Hall, London; Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, cond. George Benjamin

David Sawer is in New York, where he is presenting his ballet Rumpelstiltskin at the 2012 Congress of the International Society for the Performing Arts.

Together with Stephen Newbould from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, David is participating in the “Pitch New Works Now” session of the conference.

Fingers crossed for the first US performance of Rumpelstiltskin, a work that the Times called “a tour de force of mostly ominous effects and gradually mounting frenzy”.

Clarification

I was a little unclear in this post. The work was not itself performed, but presented to the delegates of the congress. Our crossed fingers refer to the hope that one of the delegates was so overwhelmed as to plan a new production of the ballet.

Apologies for any confusion.

Before we disappear amongst the Christmas wrapping, here are a few tips for your listening pleasure over the holidays.

Pierre Boulez’ Notations are on Radio SWR2 tonight (Friday) at 8pm German time.

David Sawer’s Stramm Gedichte will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 tomorrow (Saturday) at 9:45pm London time.

Arvo Pärt’s Magnificat is sung by the NDR choir tomorrow (Saturday 24th) at 7pm German time on Radio NDR Kultur.

Once the new year kicks off, listen to the Arditti Quartet performing Vykintas Baltakas’ string quartet b(ell tree) on SWR2 on Wednesday 4th January at 11pm German time.

French speakers might like to listen to France Culture’s Villes Mondes Vienne episode, which was first broadcast on 13th November and contains an interview with Friedrich Cerha.

Merry Christmas!

His music “shimmers with iridescent detail”, he “defies accurate categorisation”, his “command of skills is complete”, he “tightens his score with unerring focus”, there is “unfailing originality and distinctiveness of everything David Sawer composes” …

… and he’s 50 years old today.

Congratulations David. We’re proud to have you in the UE catalogue and look forward to all the music you’re going to write.

Read more about David Sawer, listen to excerpts from his works and find background information and reviews of his works.

Feel free to send David your birthday wishes on our Facebook page.

Update

Here's a preview of our forthcoming new composer brochure

Update 2

Here's the finished composer brochure