PIANO
Ten Boogie-Woogie Studies
Composed: 2010
Duration 13 minutes
Duration 13 minutes
Three Homages
Composed: 2012-14
1. Glass
2. Debussy
3. Bridge
Duration 7 minutes
1. Glass
2. Debussy
3. Bridge
Duration 7 minutes
Four Little Pieces
Composed: 2015
1. Lento
2. Agitato
3. Lento
4. Agitato
Duration 5 minutes
First performance: Jocelyn Freeman, Penkhull Festival, Staffordshire, 21.9.18
1. Lento
2. Agitato
3. Lento
4. Agitato
Duration 5 minutes
First performance: Jocelyn Freeman, Penkhull Festival, Staffordshire, 21.9.18
Three Pieces after poems of Arthur Berry
Composed: 2015
1. The Blackbird
2. Hill Farm
3. Here
Duration 10 minutes
Commissioned by Penkhull Festival
First performance: Peter Foggitt (piano) and Ray Johnson (reader), Penkhull Festival, Staffordshire, 17.9.15
The painter, playwright and poet Arthur Berry (1925-94) was born in the Potteries town of Smallthorne. After teaching at Manchester, Cheslea and Burslem Colleges of Art, he became Principal Lecturer in Painting at North Staffordshire Polytechnic. His collection of poems, "Dandelions", was published in 1993.
Many of Berry's poems are about his observations of the urban places and working class people of Stoke-on-Trent, but in this collection of piano pieces I have chosen to focus on three poems whose subject matter is the natural landscape.
I. The Blackbird
Here, Berry describes the blackbird's observation that winter is approaching. The mood of the poem is ominous and a feeling of foreboding runs throughout.
II. Hill Farm
In this poem, winter has arrived, and the writing conjours up a very desolate and cold series of images.
III. Here
The poet desribes the sticky, dense light, the richness of the dark shadows, and the colour of the earth.
Berry suffered from agoraphobia, and there is certainly a feeling of unease and discomfort in his writing about open spaces. I have attempted to paint pictures in sound of the scenes he so vividly describes. Rather than being conventional settings of the poems, each piece is simply inspired by the langauge and imagery presented in each. They are written in such a way as to allow simultaneous narration of the poems themselves.
"The dominant mood of the poems ... was enhanced by Brammeld's melodic modernism." - Dr Catherine Burgass, Arnold Bennett Society newsletter, Winter 2015-16
1. The Blackbird
2. Hill Farm
3. Here
Duration 10 minutes
Commissioned by Penkhull Festival
First performance: Peter Foggitt (piano) and Ray Johnson (reader), Penkhull Festival, Staffordshire, 17.9.15
The painter, playwright and poet Arthur Berry (1925-94) was born in the Potteries town of Smallthorne. After teaching at Manchester, Cheslea and Burslem Colleges of Art, he became Principal Lecturer in Painting at North Staffordshire Polytechnic. His collection of poems, "Dandelions", was published in 1993.
Many of Berry's poems are about his observations of the urban places and working class people of Stoke-on-Trent, but in this collection of piano pieces I have chosen to focus on three poems whose subject matter is the natural landscape.
I. The Blackbird
Here, Berry describes the blackbird's observation that winter is approaching. The mood of the poem is ominous and a feeling of foreboding runs throughout.
II. Hill Farm
In this poem, winter has arrived, and the writing conjours up a very desolate and cold series of images.
III. Here
The poet desribes the sticky, dense light, the richness of the dark shadows, and the colour of the earth.
Berry suffered from agoraphobia, and there is certainly a feeling of unease and discomfort in his writing about open spaces. I have attempted to paint pictures in sound of the scenes he so vividly describes. Rather than being conventional settings of the poems, each piece is simply inspired by the langauge and imagery presented in each. They are written in such a way as to allow simultaneous narration of the poems themselves.
"The dominant mood of the poems ... was enhanced by Brammeld's melodic modernism." - Dr Catherine Burgass, Arnold Bennett Society newsletter, Winter 2015-16