Inventions

for any keyboard instrument

Seven short two-part compositions that can be performed on any type of keyboard instrument with the range of 5-octave FF-f’’’, including most historical keyboards. This set has also been arranged for any combination involving violin, viola and cello.

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Sonnet d’Amour

from Petite Suite de Concert (op.77) for piano solo

From Petite Suite de Concert (op.77, 1910) by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and arranged by Richard Birchall in 2020.

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Seven Short Pieces

for bass flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano

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Two Movements for Small Harp

for solo lever harp

Commissioned by Ruth Wall

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Ostina-bush-to

for piano solo

This short piece is an imitation using Bartok’s Mikrokosmos Volume 6, No.146

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Reeling

for clarinet and hi-hat cymbal

Written for Roger Heaton and premiered by him with Nigel Shipway (percussion) on 28 April 1983 in the Purcell Room, London.

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Widerstehen

ein Dokument in acht Szenen (a chamber opera in eight scenes)

Based directly on the life and death of my grandfather’s eldest child, Elisabeth von Thadden, who was executed on 8th September 1944 in Plötzensee prison in Berlin. The text draws on family documents and material from the Museum of the  German Resistance in Berlin, other archives and books on her life. Written for ensemble recherche.

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Lifelines

for orchestra

Tone-poem celebrating being alive in the 2020 “the year of fear” in the form of a ’roundelay’

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Brahms and Red Wine

for piano solo

For Stuart Orford 1957 – 2015

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A Paean for Peter

for piano solo

In memory the composer’s father Peter Gorb 1926 – 2013, an arrangement of a movement of a chamber orchestra piece, entitled ‘A Celebration’, written for the Northern Chamber Orchestra in 2014.

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Thrall (solo piano version)

for solo piano

For Aron Kallay. A solo version of the same work for piano and five instruments.

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Flock

for saxophone quartet and electronics

Our recollections of specific events sometimes come slowly. Flock depicts this psychological process — consisting of sharp fragments, vague emotional sensations, and blurry images that gradually pinpoint a moment in time.

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Highwire

for oboe and electronics

Highwire features the oboe as a carrier for soaring melodic lines and exploring the oboe’s unique ability to color the same note in many different ways.

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Negative Magic

for snare drum

Commissioned by Michael Compitello for the “Unsnared Drum” Project, a piece that discovers richness and complexity by relinquishing control.

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The Sea as Fallacy

for wind quintet and piano

Commissioned by the Wege Durch Das Land Festival 2020 for Berlin Counterpoint. Grand spectral harmonic fields reinterpreted with the goal of a more intimate expression. “For me, growing up on small islands, the work’s shifting foundations of tonality resembles the surface of a sea – mostly quite peaceful with only slight wrinkles, but at other times with violent waves crashing down”.

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Soothe a Tooth

for solo viola

Co-Commissioned by Riot Ensemble and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.\n\nSoothe a Tooth is a brief contemplation on clenched jaws, cracked teeth, and dry tongues – as well as the coping techniques one might try in order to soothe these invisible stress responses.

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Simple Fuel

for large ensemble

Commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition for the Grossman Ensemble Simple Fuel explores concepts of movement: our emotion motivations, physical momentum, and the repetition of gestures.

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L’Enfant Avec Les Trois Clepsydres

for violin and horn

Through lyricism and playfulness the first two sections reflect a child’s exploration and experimentation with an hourglass, while the last section reveals its function and purpose.

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Roses et Papillons

for mezzo-soprano and orchestra

Setting of Victor Hugo

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Funky Bowl (duet version)

for piano duet

based on a theme by Michael Nyman called “Upon Drinking in a Bowl” from the soundtrack to the film “The Libertine.” this is a fun little piece made out of canons. A student playing with their teacher may wish to play the lower part, Piano II – in this case the Primo part. Also Available for two pianos

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Rhythm, Fallin’ Blues

for piano solo

A short piano piece inspired by R&B, exploring a single overlapping blues scale. The piece is light, playful and should be played with lots of pedal.

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Two Sketches (from Five Sketches for Piano)

for solo piano

To Thalia Myers

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Three Pieces

for percussion and electronics

Commissioned and premiered by James Wood at the Wells-on-Sea Arts Centre, and performed again at the Purcell Room, London.

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Boulevards

for piano solo

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Pandemical Variations

for piano

A set of variations on a Chopin-esque nocturne composed during the extended pandemic lockdown of 2020. The word pandemic implies ‘all people’ and the variations echo different styles and eras, gradually becoming more abstract. The rigor of the final fugue on the minor key theme is quickly shrugged off, allowing the major key theme to conclude with optimistic ebullience.

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Quiltscape III

for solo piano

For Maria Marchant.

Feature article on this work.

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The Poet’s Muse

for solo piano

Inspired by the English Georigan poet John Drinkwater, who is guided by The Muse in the opera ‘Quilt Song’.

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The Surroundings

for piano solo

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White Lace

for piano solo

For Satoko Inoue.

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Conversational Geometry

for amplified acoustic guitar, tenor trombone and piano

Dedicated to Dirk Amrein

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Pagan I

for orchestra

PAGAN I and PAGAN II may be performed as independent pieces, however, ideally, they should be performed as two parts of one continuous piece. Dedicated to Peter Maxwell Davies.

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Pagan II

for orchestra

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