Author Archive

Solfa’s new piece for solo organ ‘Edwylm’, will be premiered by Richard Moore at All Saints Margaret Street on 26th October 2017.  Solfa is also collaborating with librettist Nick Pitts-Tucker on a cantata based on the life of St Cuthbert, which will be performed in 2018.

Solfa’s piece ‘Dystopia’, as performed by flautist William Dowdall, features as part of Royal Irish Academy of Music’s conference day on 24th March 2017.  The Irish salute to female composers comprises a series of free-admission events, to take place at the RIAM and Smock Alley Theatre 1662. Information below and here.

The Silver Tree Fanfare will receive another performance this coming Friday (3th Feb) at a lunchtime concert at St Martin in the Fields, London, by Ellie Lovegrove (trumpet) and Richard Moore (organ).  Illumina have included the piece on their forthcoming recording and continue to perform it as part of their concert repertoire.

Sheet music for various pieces, including the popular solo flute piece, ‘Dystopia’, are available to purchase from the Contemporary Music Centre website here.

Following various performances of  ‘Silver Tree Fanfare’ by Illumina, the duo have included the work on their forthcoming CD, which will be released on the Convivium Records label in 2017.  Solfa participated in a video recording in October 2016 to promote the CD’s release.    More about Convivium here.

Solfa is currently working on two projects with UK-based Cantata Dramatica, the most recent of which is a commission for a church cantata to be performed in 2017.  Information about Cantata Dramatica and their work is available here.  Solfa is also editing a previously performed work ‘Little River’ to be performed at St John’s Smith Square, and has been commissioned by organist Richard Moore to write a solo piece for performance in autumn 2017.

I recently finished a piece by duo Illumina for trumpet and organ.  In preparation for composing this, I studied several pieces in the canonic organ repertoire by Duruflé, Stanford, Messiaen and others.  I was somewhat disheartened, particularly by the beauty and complexity of Duruflé’s compositions, but later learned from Simon Johnson (whose recital I attended at Merton College, Oxford) that Duruflé was a perfectionist who kept very few of his works.  I found this oddly reassuring, given that Duruflé is a particularly tough act to follow, or precede, in a concert setting…

Aside from availing of  Richard Moore’s clear and detailed advice on the manuals available and the registration on the organ which would premiere the work, I visited friends in Amesbury in Wiltshire, one of whom is a church organist.  There I was given brief lessons in playing the organ.  At first, simply manoeuvring pedals and manuals in tandem during a read-through of ‘Walking in the Air’ was enough to stress me out and provide comedy for all.  After two days, I was smugly sailing though Flor Peeters’  Aria.  Though not a technically demanding piece, I felt I’d achieved something simply by means of limb-eye coordination…

After reading numerous online articles about composing for organ, I decided that I would leave the registration up to the organist.  One particular article stated: ‘Composers, don’t bother specifying the registration, as you will be ignored’. Perhaps not always the case, but I wanted to give the organist the freedom to choose from a palette of sounds based on simple suggestions of timbre.  The score was annotated here and there with brief instructions as to how certain sections should relate.  Twee adjectives such as ‘sparkly’ and ‘ghostly’ made their way into the first draft.  Richard sent me some suggestions of registration to approve via email, but I was happy for him to make his own decisions about what sounds worked best in rehearsal, as I wouldn’t hear the piece until the initial performance.

Despite all my studying of organ playing and writing, I had written enough for the trumpet to feel confident that my writing for it was idiomatic.  Then it was Ellie who contacted me suggesting that the relentless passages of virtuosic trumpet writing in my score needed a few breaks here and there, for reasons of endurance (this piece would be the first in a 45 minute concert of challenging pieces)!  Although there were moments to breathe, there were scarcely a few bars’ rest to be found for the trumpet.  I reworked the piece accordingly, maintaining its development but keeping in the ‘fireworks’.  The resulting effect was conducive to the effect of the piece.   The texture, rather than being predominantly dense, was now broken up into antiphonal passages, larger solo sections and an eventual musical homogeneity at the conclusion, better pronounced by the thinning out of the part.  The brief I was given when commissioned to write this piece was, ‘Lots of fizz and bang, please.’  I hope that the musicians, and audience, find some of each in this work.

This coming Sunday 5th June, hear Illumina in concert at St Marylebone Parish Church, playing music full of passion, including the first performance of a new Illumina commission: Solfa Carlile’s Silver Tree Fanfare. Information available here.

‘Dystopia’ will be performed by Kirkos Ensemble at St Patrick’s Festival, at the Chocolate Factory, Dublin, on March 20th.  More information about the event here.

Things have been quiet for the past couple of months as I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with doctoral study.  I’m looking forward to getting back into writing after a break.  I’ve recently been commissioned to compose four new pieces – three as part of a larger choral commission (more news to come) and one, a short piece for duo Illumina, based in London.  The duo piece is for trumpet and organ.  Having only written once previously for organ (and not in great detail), I will have to undertake some research into writing for the instrument.  I”ve not been very active in the Twittersphere lately, apart from some occasional re-tweets, but I will do my best to be disciplined and make note of exciting events to come.