2014

Roger Marsh New Music

Biography

Roger Marsh attended the University of York in the early seventies, where he studied with Bernard Rands. He spent two years (1976-78) at the University of California, San Diego, on a Harkness Fellowship. From 1978 to 1988 he lectured at the University of Keele and was Head of Department there for three years before returning to York, where he is currently Professor of Music.

His music has been performed and broadcast widely. A work for piano and orchestra, Stepping Out, was premiered during the BBC Proms 1990 season. Espace, for orchestra, was premiered at the Huddersfield Festival in 1994. A work for percussion quartet, Sukeroku (2000), composed for ‘Backbeat Percussion’, has been extensively toured by them and was recorded in Japan along with a work for O-Tsuzumi and Percussion quartet, Atsumari (2004) (CD: NF61801). His setting of all of Albert Giraud’s Pierrot Lunaire - 50 Rondels Bergamasques was released in 2007 on NMC records (NMC127), and a major article on Giraud was published in Twentieth-Century Music (CUP), also in 2007. Il Cor Tristo, an extended work for the Hilliard Ensemble which sets two cantos from Dante’s Inferno, was premiered in Perugia, Italy, in September 2008. Other recent vocal music includes Lullaby, composed for the NMC Songbook in 2009, and A Lyke Wake Dirge for chamber choir, premiered by The 24 in China in 2010. In 2013 Marsh composed Poor Yorick for the Hilliard Ensemble’s 40th Anniversary Tour. The piece received its world première in London at the Spitalfields Winter Festival in December 2013, with subsequent performances in Paris and Munich.

Roger Marsh directs the music theatre ensemble Black Hair, which gave the world premiere in 2010 of Rising, a sequence of musical and theatrical actions devised in collaboration with Black Hair. Marsh is also known for his abridgements and productions of all the novels of James Joyce for Naxos Audiobooks, including Joyce’s Ulysses - unabridged on 22 CDs (2004). In 2010 he composed music for a major BBC Radio 3 production of Goethe’s Faust.

Roger Marsh

For further information:

Frankfurt New York LondonC. F. Peters Ltd. & Co. KG C. F. Peters Corporation Peters Edition LtdHedderichstr. 108 – 110 70 – 30 80th Street 2 – 6 Baches Street D-60596 Frankfurt/Main Glendale NY 11385 London N1 6DNDeutschland USA UK +49 (0) 69 63 00 99-0 + (1) 718 416 7800 +44 (0) 20 7553 4000 stefan.conradi@editionpeters.com gene.caprioglio@editionpeters.com newmusic@editionpeters.com

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Solo and Chamber Ensemble

Atsumari (2003) 8 minutesPercussion ensembleWritten for Shonosuke Okura and BackbeatFirst performed 19 November 2003, Triphony Hall, Kinshi, Tokyo, by Shonosuke Okura and BackbeatEP 71533

Canto I (1999) 15 minutesStrings 3.3.2.2.1Commissioned by the Goldberg EnsembleFirst performed 24 November 1999, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, by the Goldberg Ensemble, directed by Malcolm LayfieldEP 71534

Chaconne (1999) 7 minutesViolin soloFirst performed 28 March 2000, Goldsmith’s College, London, by Caroline BaldingEP 71537

Sankyoku (2004) 9 minutesAlto Flute, Guitar, 1PercussionWritten for the New Music PlayersFirst performed 28 April 2004, the Victoria Rooms, Bristol, by the New Music PlayersEP 71541

Slow Right Arm (1997) 8 minutesBaroque Violin & Double-BassWritten for Barry GuyFirst performed 28 November 1997, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, St. Paul’s Hall, Huddersfield, by Barry Guy (db) and Maya Homburger (vln)EP 71542

Spin (1997) 16 minutesPiano solo & 9 players: 1.1.1.1 - 1.1.1.0 - 2percCommissioned by the Ensemble TélémaqueFirst performed 21 November 1997, Journées Internationales de la Jeune Musique, Cité de la Musique, Marseillles, by Ensemble Télémaque, Nathalie Negro (pno), conducted by Raoul LayEP 71532

Sukeroku (1999) 20 minutesPercussion quartetCommissioned with funds from North West Arts by BackbeatFirst performed 5 February 2000, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, by BackbeatEP 71535

Waiting for Charlie (1995) 14 minutes2Picc(1dA-fl,2dFl).A-sax.B-sax(dS-sax).B-cl - Tpt.Hn.2Tbn.Tba - Pf - 1Perc - Elec-guit - B-guitCommissioned by De EreprijsFirst performed 5 April 1996, Podium Gigant, Apeldoorn, Holland, by De Ereprijs, conducted by Wim MegensEP 71536

What Charlie did next (2009) c. 10 minutesFor EnsembleCommissioned by De EreprijsFirst performed 29 October 2009, Musis Sacrum Concert Hall, Arnhem, Netherlands, by De EreprijsEP 71969

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Vocal

A Little Snow (1994) 5 minutesSolo Voice (any)Text: ‘Snow’ by Nicanor Parra, from ‘Canciones Rusas’, trans. Miller Williams First performed 10 June 1994, Purcell Room, London, by Anna Myatt (sop) EP 71539

A Lyke Wake Dirge (2010) 9 minutesChoir (SSAATTBB)Text: anonCommissioned by and dedicated to Zhu Bu Xi, who conducted the first performancesFirst performed April 2010, China, by The 24EP 72052

Il Cor Tristo (2008) 23 minutesMale Vocal Ensemble (ATTB)Text: Dante Alighieri, from ‘Inferno’, cantos xxxii and xxxiii For the Hilliard EnsembleCommissioned by the Fondazione Perugia Musica Classica Onlus - Sagra Musicale Umbra, and by the Hilliard EnsembleFirst performed September 15 2008, Chiesa di Santa Teresa degli Scalzi during the 2008 Sagra Musicale Umbra, Perugia, Italy, by the Hilliard EnsembleEP 71731

Lamentations (2011) 15 minutesA Music Theatre PieceVoice, Alto Flute, PercussionText: Old TestamentConceived and composed in collaboration with Angelica Cathariou and dedicated to her.EP 72491

Lullaby (2008) 2 minutesVoice & MarimbaText: Thomas DekkerCommissioned by NMC records for the 40th anniversary songbookFirst performed 1 April 2009, Kings Place, LondonEP 71777

Pierrot Lunaire Part 1 (2001) Part 2 (2002) 2 hours 15 minutes50 items for various vocal combinations, performable complete, in selections or individually, with or without theatrical setting.Text: Albert Giraud ‘Rondels Bergamasque’Part 1 commissioned by the Hilliard Ensemble for the Hilliard Summer FestivalFirst performed 4 August 2001, Pfarrkirche St. Martin, Engers, GermanyFirst complete performance (staged) 13-15 November 2002, Lyons Concert Hall, York, by York Music Theatre Group, directed by the composer.EP 71540

Poor Yorick (2013) 12 minutesCountertenor, 5 Tenors, 2 BassesText: from ‘Tristram Shandy’ by Laurence SterneComposed for the Hilliard Ensemble’s 40th Anniversary Tour in December 2013.First performed 11 December 2013, Spitalfields Winter Festival, London, by the Hilliard EnsembleEP 72500

Sozu-Baba (1996) 18 minutesMusic theatre piece for Solo VoiceText: Judith Woolf, from ‘Three Roads River’Commissioned by the soprano Janice JacksonFirst performed 31 March 1997, the Kikker Theatre, Utrecht, Holland, by Janice JacksonEP 71538

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Wiegenlied (2002) 7 minutesTenor & Prepared PianoText: Wilhelm Müller, arr. the composerWritten for John Potter and Nicky LosseffFirst performed 8 May 2002, Jack Lyons Concert Hall, by John Poter (ten) and Nicky Losseff (pno)EP 71531

Orchestral

Espace (1994) 17 minutes4(2dPicc).3.3(Eb-cl).B-cl.2.Cbsn - 4.4.3.1 - 2Hp - Pf 0 Cel - 4Perc - StrWritten under the auspices of a bursary from the Arts Council of England, with additional funding from the Holst Foundation.First performed 26 November 1994, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Huddersfield Town Hall, by the English Northern Philharmonia, conducted by Diego MassonEP 71530

For further information:

Frankfurt New York LondonC. F. Peters Ltd. & Co. KG C. F. Peters Corporation Peters Edition LtdHedderichstr. 108 – 110 70 – 30 80th Street 2 – 6 Baches Street D-60596 Frankfurt/Main Glendale NY 11385 London N1 6DNDeutschland USA UK +49 (0) 69 63 00 99-0 + (1) 718 416 7800 +44 (0) 20 7553 4000 stefan.conradi@editionpeters.com gene.caprioglio@editionpeters.com newmusic@editionpeters.com