Peter Facer
*2 December 1987
Works by Peter Facer
Biography
Peter Facer is the co-principal oboist of the Britten Sinfonia, and also a highly sought-after composer. He studied music at Cambridge University, where he specialised in composition, graduating with a double first class degree. His 'Insect Etudes' for solo oboe are performed by oboists around the globe and are a set piece for the Australian Music Examinations Board oboe diploma exam. The first of the etudes, The Praying Mantis, was also recently performed in the 2020 final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Peter has written incidental music for the play 'Peter Pan', the score of which won the Orpheus Composer of the Year competition. In 2021, Peter was awarded second place in the Aglaia International Music Awards for his solo piano piece 'Diabolical Dance'. Peter receives regular commissions to write new works, recently including a viola trio for Trio Estatico. In 2022 he was granted a residency from Britten Pears Arts to start work on a new opera.
About the music
Peter says: "I find that my style flits between tonal and atonal idioms. I don't like to observe a hierarchy between the two; I much prefer jumping from one equally august camp to the other. My most-performed piece, 'The Praying Mantis', from the Insect Etudes, is a largely atonal work, though has its harmonic roots in octatonicism. It also uses serialist techniques (though with an eight-tone row, rather than twelve!) The more recent work, 'The Coven' uses a very similar compositional process, but as a Prelude and Fugue, it gives a huge nod to JS Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. At the same time there is also a narrative aspect; I intended the piece to be a musical evocation of the witches' spell from 'Macbeth'. The tonal side of my output is just as fruitful. My solo piano piece 'Diabolical Dance' certainly has tonal roots, albeit a little bent out of shape - it's inspired by the disintegrating tonalities and rhythms of the works of Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Bernstein. The "Three Motets", for unaccompanied choir, is also full of lush, expansive harmonies, continuing in the great English choral traditions of Howells and Vaughan Williams."