Rian Evans, 23 March 2005, Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon
Imagery from Les Matinaux by the Provençal poet René Char was the inspiration for Joseph Phibbs' work The Dawn Breakers. In a three-movement structure, where a longer first movement is balanced by a short, fast movement and calmer final stanza, Phibbs' succinct score for chamber strings and single wind never failed to engage either senses or mind. Like flickers of light at the outer edges of a misty horizon which gradually coalesce, the thematic material - always idiomatically conceived - became more vivid with successive appearances.
The rising frenzy of the second movement was particularly striking, finally breaking off sharply to clear the air. The expectation and tight aural focus so astutely created in that moment was rewarded with the ensuing lucidity of clarinet, muted trumpet and flute. An impression of a carefully contained but intense piece was confirmed on second hearing.
|
 |
Joseph Phibbs
Joseph Phibbs attended The Purcell School from 1988 to 1992, where he studied piano, cello, and composition. He had private lessons in composition from Param Vir, before continuing his education at King's College London, taking lessons from Robert Keeley and Sir Harrison Birtwistle. In 1993 he attended the Britten-Pears Contemporary Music Course, where he worked with Colin Matthews and Oliver Knussen. He graduated from Kings in 1995 with First Class Honours, after being awarded the Purcell Prize for highest results in his year, and was subsequently appointed Assistant Lecturer in Composition.
Following a Master's in Composition at Kings in 1996 (for which he was awarded a British Academy Award), he spent a year writing incidental music for a variety of professional theatres, including the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich and the New Shakespeare Company, Regent's Park. In 1997 he went to study towards a Doctorate in Composition with Steven Stucky at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York), before returning to the UK in 2001.
Phibbs' music has been performed by leading artists and ensembles, including the London Sinfonietta, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Lontano, the Schubert Ensemble, Endymion, Chroma, the ECO Ensemble and the New London Children's Choir. He has received commissions from a number of major festivals and orchestras, including Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Spitalfields, where his Ritual Songs and Blessings was premiered. Char Fragments was performed in 1999 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, and Cayuga, for 15 players was premiered at the 2000 'State of the Nation' by the London Sinfonietta, who subsequently performed it at the Basel Monatmusik Festival in November 2001, under George Benjamin. Cayuga was also selected for the 2000 International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. In Camera, was written for Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered in Macau, before receiving its British premiere at the Barbican Hall London in October 2001.
It received its US premiere by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. in October 2002, and was selected for the closing concert of the ISCM World Music Days 2003 in Slovenia. La Noche Arrolladora for six instruments was commissioned for the 2002 BBC Proms, and In Passing for solo piano was premiered at last year's Bath International Music Festival by Sarah Nicholls. Ave verum corpus commissioned by Choir and Organ magazine, was premiered at St. Albans Cathedral and Rainland, commissioned by East Sussex Music Service and written in collaboration with the poet Stephen Plaice, was performed in the Royal Albert Hall in 2004 by over 1000 singers and wind orchestra. Phibbs' Lumina was written for the 2003 Last Night of the Proms and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. Many of his pieces have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Phibbs continues his work in theatre, recently composing the score for a Japanese production of Hamlet, directed by Jonathan Kent, in Tokyo and London.
Commissions and Performances
The Dawn Breakers - 2005
21 March 2005: Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon (world premiere)
22 March 2005: Pittvile Pump Room, Cheltenham
The Dawn Breakers
The first movement begins with the ensemble divided at its most extreme registers: at the top, a piccolo introduces a pointed melodic figure that descends gradually through the ensemble, while the double bass provides a slowly ascending motion. This wedge-like formation eventually settles in the middle register of the ensemble, where a web of slow melodic lines begins to coalesce, finally breaking out into fanfare-like sequences in the high wind instruments, before a fast descent back to the middle register.
The second movement is fast and rhythmic- a type of scherzo, exploring syncopations between groups of instruments and density of timbre (specific qualities of sound provided by individual instruments, and how these might combine into composite sounds). This relates also to a kind of foreground-background in the music, the shift of emphasis in this respect being constantly challenged and disrupted.
The final movement is slower and more reflective, nocturnal in character, and occasionally recalling figures from the previous two movements.
The work was inspired in part from imagery evoked in the poetry of the Provençal poet, René Char, of which Les Matinaux (The Dawn Breakers) is one collection.
Joseph Phibbs
|
