Anthony Powers - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Life

Born in London, England, he took private tuition with Elisabeth Lutyens

Elisabeth Lutyens

Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE was a significant English composer.- Early life and education :She was one of the five children of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and his wife Emily, who was profoundly involved in the Theosophical Movement...

and Harrison Birtwistle

Harrison Birtwistle

Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...

between 1969 and 1971, and also with Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

in Paris from 1972 to 1973. Between 1973 and 1976 he went to the University of York

University of York

The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...

, where he studied with Blake David and Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands is a composer of contemporary classical music.Rands studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy.He held residencies...

(a pupil of Boulez and Berio), to obtain a DPhil in Composition. He went on to teach at Dartington College of Arts

Dartington College of Arts

Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts institution near Totnes, Devon, South West England, it specialized in post-dramatic theatre, music, choreography, Performance Writing and visual performance, focusing on a performative and multi-disciplinary approach to the arts. In addition to this,...

for two years and then went on to become composer-in-residence at Southern Arts. In 1987 he moved on to teach at Cardiff University

Cardiff University

Cardiff University is a leading research university located in the Cathays Park area of Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It received its Royal charter in 1883 and is a member of the Russell Group of Universities. The university is consistently recognised as providing high quality research-based...

, where he became composer-in-residence in 1990 and was Professor of Composition from 2004 until 2010. He was Chairman of the Association of Professional Composers between 1995 and 1997.

Powers has received a number of high profile commissions (for example, from the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

and the Three Choirs Festival

Three Choirs Festival

The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...

Society, amongst others) and his works have been performed both in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and abroad.

Works

Powers has written over sixty works, including four String Quartets, two Symphonies, a 'Cello Concerto

Concerto

A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

, a Horn Concerto

Concerto

, as well as many choral and chamber works. He displays a vast array of influences in his output - from the Black Mountains

Black Mountains

There are several mountain ranges named the Black Mountains:* Black Mountains * Black Mountains * Black Mountains * Black Mountains * Black Mountains * Black Mountains...

to 16th/17th century Italian gardens, from Monteverdi to William Walton

William Walton

Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...

. He has done settings of texts by Wordsworth, Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...

, Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...

, Baudelaire, Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...

and many others.

Below is a summary of some of his key works:

Orchestral Works

Stone, Water, Stars (1987), commissioned for the BBC Symphony Orchestra

BBC Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...

, is the third part of a trilogy inspired by the ambiance and architecture of Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

. The other two works that belong to this trilogy are the Chamber Concerto (1983/4) and Venexiana (1985). Powers quotes melodic ideas from both the Chamber Concerto and Venexiana in Stone, Water, Stars, so the trilogy is linked in both theme and material.
Powers explains that, in this piece, he ‘used the proportions, borrowed from renaissance architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

and Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

's studies of the human form, to govern some other aspects of the music from large shapes to the smallest rhythmic details.’

The 'Cello Concerto (1990) was commissioned for the King's Lynn Festival, specifically written for the 'cellist Stephen Isserlis and dedicated to the Artistic Adviser of the King's Lynn Festival, Meirion Bowen. The concerto

Concerto

is in three movements: I. Molto Moderato, II. Allegro molto, leggiero ma energico and III. Adagio - two slow movements surrounding a faster middle movement. One important aspect of the Cello Concerto is the prominence of the piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

(alongside the 'cello) as can be heard in the opening passage of the work. Material heard at first upon one instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

returns later in the piece, elaborated and morphed, on the other. Another important feature of the work is its lyricism. Although some of the writing for the soloist

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

and orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

is at times quite turbulent, a number of critics have commented on the "reflective" nature of the piece.

The Horn Concerto (1989) was written for the horn player Michael Thompson. It is both similar and different to the Cello Concerto. Unlike, the Cello Concerto, the Horn Concerto is in only two movements ('Madrigals of Love and War' and 'Winter Journeys'), but the overall thematic shape is very similar, whereby, in the words of John Warnaby, 'an element of conflict is gradually superseded by affirmative lyricism' . Of the Second Movement, Powers comments, 'The soloist leads the orchestra from desolation towards a new and serene prospect and an exuberant close where the music which was extinguished by the first orchestral outburst of the work is now secure and confident.' . A notable aspect of the Horn Concerto is that it was, to some extent, influenced by Powers visits to Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

in 1986 and 1988. Powers explains that; ‘The concerto seemed to be, on one level at least, a history, in music, of Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

from 1968 to 1989.’

Anthony Powers' First Symphony was written between 1994 and 1996. He points out in the programme notes that he did not necessarily set out to write a symphony but as he continued his work, that is what it was appearing to become. In the programme notes to the work, Powers speaks of working with the "friendly ghosts of the symphonic tradition". In this work he uses abstract and modern material in a traditional form. Like a lot of his works, the Symphony

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

is a fight between light and dark. Different families of the orchestra wrestle with each other for supremacy in the overall sound, sometimes resorting to violent themes; at others, resorting to lyricism. The symphony has had a number of good reviews. Andrew Burn writes of how this symphony demonstrates Powers' 'mastery of extended large-scale structures'. Nicholas Jones, too, comments on this, writing about the 'evident assuredness of Powers's handling of the symphonic genre'. Nicholas Jones also compliments Power's 'wonderful' orchestration.

Vocal/Choral Works

A Picture of the World (2001) was commissioned by the BBC

BBC

and is a setting of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Powers' mentor Elisabeth Lutyens

Elisabeth Lutyens

also set this text in her motet, Excerpta Tractatus. However, Powers points out that the reason he picked the text was not because of Lutyens, but because of the interest he had in the text - he felt it was complex and had been misinterpreted. In his article in The Guardian, Harry Eyres points out the strange instrumentation of the piece, which utilises unaccompanied choir, counter-tenor and clarinet. Powers explains that he uses a counter-tenor because 'Wittgenstein had an unusually high speaking voice' and the solo counter-tenor and clarinet act as the voice of the philosopher, supported by the unaccompanied choir.

Powers has written a number of works which utilise an unaccompanied choir. For example Lullaby (1991) and Lullo by Lollo (1993) were both written for unaccompanied SATB choir and also O Magnum Mysterium (1995), which was written for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir.

Airs and Angels (2003) was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival Society for the Three Choirs Festival

Three Choirs Festival

held in Hereford

Hereford

Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...

in 2003. It was heard at the festival alongside works by great British composers such as Parry and Elgar. Airs and Angels is a setting of seven of John Donne

John Donne

John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...

’s (1572–1631) poems, scored for soprano, baritone, SATB chorus and orchestra (with the orchestra including an electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

and a bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

). At the work’s centre lies the ‘dark and intense’ setting of 'A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day' and the surrounding settings move towards and away from this central darkness. In the programme notes to the work Powers discusses Donne’s language as being ‘stunning in its immediacy, suggestive in its ambiguity and often surprising in its modernity... even if at times his imagery is knotty and 'difficult'.’ Powers goes onto pontificate on whether ‘music, with its greater expressive range, its forms unfolding in time, can help to explain such language.’

From Station Island (2003) is a setting of Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

's set of poems entitled Station Island. The work is scored for male speaker, baritone

Baritone

Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

, flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

(inc. piccolo

Piccolo

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...

and alto flute

Alto flute

The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. It is the next extension downward of the C flute after the flûte d'amour. It is characterized by its distinct, mellow tone in the lower portion of its range...

), clarinet, percussion, harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, and 'cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

. Station Island consists of twelve "substantial" poems, which Powers had to abridge. He reduced the number of poems to nine and cut each of those down to suit his purposes. As in Another Part of the Island (see below), certain instrumental parts take on certain personas. Station Island is can be seen as autobiographical so Powers assigns the male speaker the "role" of the poet and the baritone acts as 'the numerous characters from past and present whom the poet meets'. At the West Cork Music Festival in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

in June 2005, the work received its Irish premiere and the male speaker role was performed by Seamus Heaney himself.

Chamber Works

Another Part of the Island (1980, revised in 1994) is a chamber work in four movements written for flute

Flute

(including an alto flute and a piccolo), clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

, piano

Piano

, percussion, violin

Violin

and 'cello. The premiere of this work was performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

Queen Elizabeth Hall

The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...

, London in May 1982 and it was conducted by John Carewe. The island referred to in the title is the imaginary island that appears in Shakespeare's The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...

. Powers points out that although the piece is not "programme music", the instruments can be seen as playing characters from the play - the 'cello as the part of Prospero; the flute, that of Ariel; the clarinet as Caliban and the violin plays the role of Miranda.

His chamber works include a number of solo works, for example:

Nocturnes: book 2 (1984) for solo cello
Barcarola (1987) for solo viola
In Two Minds (1991) for solo oboe
Nature Studies (1992) for solo guitar

Other chamber works include his four string quartets (1987, 1991, 1999, 2005), as well as works such as the early Nymphéas (1983); the wind quintet, Capricci; In Shadow (1989), for oboe and piano; In Sunlight (1993) for violin and piano and Fast Colours (1997) for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello.

Keyboard Works

Powers has written a number of works for piano

Piano

, including Flyer (for two pianos) (2004), Piano Sonata
Sonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...

No. 1 (1983), Piano Sonata
Sonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...

No. 2 (1986) and Sensing (2003). However, the best known of his piano

Piano

works is The Memory Room (1990/1).

The Memory Room is a work for solo piano that lasts for around seventeen minutes which was written for, and dedicated to, William Howard. Howard premiered the piece at the Lichfield Festival on 10 July 1992. The Memory Room is not a large-scale work, as the two previous Piano Sonatas were, but rather it consists of sixteen short 'pieces':

i. (senza tempo)
ii. Martellato, furioso
iii. Andante tranquillo
iv. Mesto, espressivo
v. Vivo
vi. Adagio non troppo
vii. Largo
viii. (senza tempo)
ix. Presto e leggiero
x. Lento, meccanico
xi. Tranquillo
xii. Allegro energico
xiii. (senza tempo)
xiv. Allegro molto
xv. Lento e calmo - Song Without Words
xvi. (senza tempo)

In the programme notes to the piece Powers writes that 'the music evokes, and alludes to, a wide variety of keyboard styles from the 16th to the 20th centuries, from classical

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

to rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

.' A critic writing in The Musical Times points out that Powers integrates these keyboard styles into his own style so effectively that 'they are mere ghosts or shadows of their former selves'. The critic, personally, finds traces of Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

, Debussy, Chopin and even a bit of boogie-woogie

Boogie-woogie

Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...

, but he also points out that the ghostly references could well be missed or bring other memories to audience members.

In 2003, Powers wrote a second piece for Howard, entitled Vista, and Powers explains that Vista was the first piece in a planned sequence of pieces all reflecting on or interpreting 'aspects of Italian renaissance and baroque gardens.'

External links

Review of recording by Psappha

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