| Composing a Quartet for Amateur Musicians |
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Ian Stephens was commissioned in May 2004 by Peter Banks, a keen amateur violinist with Wirral Symphony Orchestra, to compose a piece in celebration of his 70th birthday, specifically for him and his quartet to play. Here Ian gives us a unique perspective on the creative process. I was introduced to Peter through violinist Lesley Gwyther with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra having previously written a series of short pieces for the family concerts put on by the RLPO as well as a few occasional pieces. The project began with an initial meeting to discuss exactly what Peter wanted and to agree my remuneration. The fee is of course negotiable with 25% advanced and the remainder due on completion. During this meeting we also discussed what difficulty rating the piece would be written to, and something of the repertoire Peter’s quartet had recently enjoyed playing; this proved very useful in working out how to gauge the players’ capabilities. In the meeting I also wanted to identify if there were any references, literary, musical or otherwise, that Peter would like to be incorporated into the quartet. He came back a few days later with three English country dance tunes which he hoped I would be able to use in some way. I tend to find that some external stimulus inspires me more than a blank sheet of manuscript, so I had what I needed to get started. A project of this scale would normally take 6 – 9 months however the impending birth of my second daughter, and the ensuing chaos meant I was only able to present a section of the first movement to Peter the following autumn with a revised completion date set to Summer 2006. The title of the piece is Dances Overheard, lasting approximately 12 minutes, the piece is suitable for players of .jpg) Grade 6-7 standard and higher. There are three movements: 1. Northdown Waltz 2. Dick’s Maggot 3. Haste to the Wedding In each movement I have taken the tune as a source of melodic material, both through quoting passages of the tune itself, and through creating new melodies and motifs from fragments of the original. It’s designed to be enjoyable and rewarding to play, with moments in the spotlight for each player. Being a string player myself (I’ve played cello and double bass in chamber and orchestral music, and bass in jazz, klezmer and ceilidh bands), I feel that my writing for strings gets the very best out of the players capabilities; to back this up, I’ve been told a few times that my music can sometimes look harder on paper than it actually is to play. It was agreed from the onset that Peter and his quartet would give the first performance; before which, they had a couple of trial runs, firstly at one of the excellent chamber music courses at Plas Tan y Bwlch in North Wales, and secondly at one of the chamber music play-days at Birkenhead School organised by the Rodewald Concert Society. A few weeks before the concert I attended a rehearsal, and we had an enjoyable couple of hours sorting out some details and working on the mood of the piece. Peter arranged a Sunday afternoon concert and invited friends and relatives. The quartet played it through, then I gave a talk with musical examples about the inspiration behind the piece, and about the nuts and bolts of it. The concert concluded with an excellently played encore performance. To purchase copies of the score and set of parts for Dances Overheard, or for further details on commissioning a new work, please contact Ian directly through his website www.ianstephens.net March 2007 |
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